http://www.jagular.com/dunkindonuts.shtmlSee also:
| On Thursday, December 31, 1998 the New York Post newspaper published photographs of mice running around in a display case in a Dunkin' Donuts store at Fifth Avenue and 46th Street in Manhattan. The following Tuesday it was reported that the owner of that store was asked by Dunkin' Donuts Head Office to stop using the Dunkin' Donuts name on his store. The Late Show with David Letterman television program had a lot of fun with this story and Dave made many jokes and remarks at the expense of Dunkin' Donuts. |
If I were the CEO of Dunkin' Donuts I would see this episode as an opportunity to improve the image of the Dunkin' Donuts name and to gain market share in Manhattan. This sort of corporate crisis is what separates the men from the boys in business management, and proper handling of this sort of situation can turn a public relations disaster into a success story which will be studied in business schools for years to come.
In the day-to-day operation of a large corporation there is an inertia which can make it very difficult to make widespread changes over a short period of time. When nothing special is happening there is a strong tendency for everyone to stay where they are doing what they have always done. If you try to make big changes in this sort of environment there is often great resistance, you may be labelled a troublemaker and many of your unusual initiatives may be quashed. The status quo might also not afford a senior manager many opportunities to impress the people around them with their imaginative problem-solving skills or to find out which of their employees are most capable.
When you are in the business of preparing and serving food the worst thing which can happen to you is for your customers to get the impression that your food will make them sick. The second worst thing which can happen is for your customers to get the impression that your food is covered with vermin. Since this second problem will also make your customers think that your food will make them sick you definitely have a problem when a major newspaper runs a front page story showing mice running around in your display cases.
The first thing I would have done as CEO of Dunkin' Donuts is to take full responsibility for everything associated with this episode. It wouldn't matter if the affected store were really a franchise operation outside my direct control. When you are CEO you are paid to be responsible for everything that happens whether you could have controlled it or not.
Next I would have called my most competent Vice President and spent an hour or two working out an initial short-term plan. My Vice President and I would each assign an executive assistant to participate in all of our meetings and phone calls and to take notes about everything which was decided. There would be a lot of decisions and phone calls and people to contact and timelines to figure out and someone would have to listen in and write everything down.
Next I would have called the reporter from the New York Post and invited her to follow our reaction to her story. I would have invited her to all of our management meetings and planning sessions and allowed her to see for herself how we handled this problem.
Next I would have made a public announcement that we were going to take two days to make a corporate plan on how we were going to deal with this problem. I would not have said that we were not necessarily going to fire anyone because I would not have been sure yet why this problem occurred. I would have announced however that we promised to make Dunkin' Donuts the cleanest fast-food operation in the country and that if our market share was not significantly improved within one year that I would resign as CEO (you need a good sound-bite in this situation and the news media love it when you make these sorts of dramatic announcements).
Over the next two days my chosen Vice President and I would have had meetings with all of the managers associated with the affected store and everyone in the management hierarchy above those people. Everyone would have been expected to give productive and sensible suggestions on how to clean things up. The key here is that we would not have been trying to minimize the problem or find someone to blame or hide what had happened. We would instead have been trying to be as open and productive as possible. There would have been be plenty of time to blame and fire people after we made our plan.
One of the key elements to making a proper response to this situation would have been to go along with the joking by people like David Letterman. Two days after the crisis began we would be making detailed public announcements regarding our plans to deal with this issue. On the same day on which we made those announcements I would have asked to be a guest on David Letterman's television program. I would have worked out with his writers how we could make my appearance even more humorous than his initial joking about the mice. Perhaps I would have appeared on the show dressed like some sort of cross between the Terminator and a Ghostbuster. I could have come out on stage during one of his mouse jokes carrying various dangerous-looking devices and protective gear. The things I carried and my bantering with Dave would have been written to tie in with my announcements earlier that day about the Dunkin' Donuts plan to deal with the mouse problem.
When someone is making jokes about you your best strategy is often to go along with the joking and show them that you have a sense of humor (if they persist with ridiculing you after that point then your best option is usually to humiliate them by pointing out the fact that their criticisms are no longer valid). If someone were to argue that the proper response to this mouse situation would be for the CEO to remain reclusive and dignified then they would be missing out on an important opportunity. Remaining reclusive and dignified would not have gotten Dave to stop making jokes about mice at Dunkin' Donuts. Wouldn't it be better for him to switch to making jokes about how much ass you were going to be kicking? Wouldn't it be better for him to stop using the Dunkin' Donuts name as a representation of everything gross and disgusting and instead start using the Dunkin' Donuts corporation and the name of the CEO of Dunkin' Donuts as a representation of a force which could even turn Mexico City into a model of cleanliness? If this were handled properly then for months afterwards, every time some situation like urban crime and filth or political corruption and incompetance were to arise David Letterman would make a joke about the need to call in the CEO of Dunkin' Donuts.
One could argue that dealing with this problem would be reasonably straightforward: you get rid of the particular store with the problem, send out your inspectors more frequently and get all other stores to sign all sorts of agreements promising to be nice and clean. The key thing to remember however is that you would not only be trying to deal with this particular problem. This sort of situation would be your opportunity to shake up the management of your corporation. In these circumstances your employees are going to be much more willing to accept change than they would be otherwise. As CEO you would have a way to inspire the troops with your quick judgement, your sense of humor and your accepting of responsiblity.
The two days of planning after the crisis began and before the detailed public announcement of how we were going to deal with this problem would also have given me the opportunity to see my employees in action. My chosen Vice President and I would have used some of this time to figure out which of our people was best suited to putting our plan into action over the longer term. Although as CEO my name and face would have been publicly associated with the solving of this problem it would not actually have been me who handled the day-to-day implementation of our plan. I would have chosen a General Manager to put our plan into action. She would report to me on a regular basis of course but as CEO I would not have had time to take care of the details myself. This would not be the only crisis facing Dunkin' Donuts and I would have to be ready and available for the next problem when it arose.
There are many cliches which point to these ideas that there is no such thing as bad publicity, that a crisis is often a way to improve your overall situation and that there are periodic opportunities to separate men from boys or wheat from chaff or whatever. It seems to me however that there are many senior corporate managers who do not understand these things. Most people spend far too much time covering their asses or trying to make a problem go away by minimizing it or by blaming someone else or by hoping that everyone will just forget about it as soon as possible.
The keys to making gains in the face of crisis include accepting responsibility for things which are not really even your fault, being ready to make major changes, being decisive and maintaining your sense of humor. Dunkin' Donuts had the opportunity to score a major public relations victory with the help of one of the largest newspapers and one of the most popular television programs in the United States. As far as I know they have totally missed this opportunity.