ABSTRACT
The most important battle to be fought is not in a court of law. It’s in the court of public opinion. That’s the key lesson gleaned from James Burke’s deft handling of Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol crisis. Accept responsibility. Forget short-term profitability. As Gerald Meyers, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s business school, puts it: “If you win public opinion, the company can move forward and get through it. If you lose there, it won’t make any difference what happens in a court of law.” (Byrne, 1992, p. 33)
