SAMANTHA ENSLIN-PAYNE: Tiger Brands denials are poison to its reputation
Unlike the bread price-fixing scandal ... this one has had fatal consequences
South African companies are starting to get a reputation for making great case studies at business schools. Local management consultancy Trillian and global business McKinsey are already a case study at Harvard Business School, according to a Reuters report.
The outbreak of listeriosis and the role Tiger Brands played in it will likely be another. The assignment could read like this: write 5,000 words on how Tiger Brands could have better handled the fallout from the listeriosis contamination at its Enterprise factories (marks: 100). To answer that question, it's worth looking back at another corporate debacle that has long been part of the course work at business schools.
In May 2003, Pick n Pay received a call from an extortionist who said that unless a ransom was paid he would poison products in its stores. He warned the company not to go to the press or the police...
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