ABSTRACT
One of the most respected senior executives in America, Burke was chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson in 1982 when seven people died from ingesting Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules that had been laced with cyanide. (The culprit has never been caught.) Burke’s decisive leadership included absolute honesty with the media, an executive team devoted full time to the situation, and the unprecedented step of removing every bottle of Tylenol from sale during the crisis. Because J&J had a solid reputation as a company responsive to its consumers, it weathered the calamity as well as another poisoning incident in 1986. The Tylenol saga became a
crisismanagement legend and the stuff of business school textbook case studies.
