By Vikas AgarwalWhile the U.S. Army's Warrior Ethos may look entirely unrelated to civilian organizations, the
concepts behind it are perhaps an idea role-model for all organizations.
Warrior Ethos
The Warrior Ethos are four principles of conduct extracted from the Soldier's Creed:
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
While we normally picture a warrior as someone engaged or experienced in warfare, the U.S.
Army pictures it more as someone who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity,
cause, or conflict. Thus it becomes the foundation of soldiers in both peacetime and periods of
conflict.
Ethos is the spirit (esprit d' corps), moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a community or individual.
I will always place the mission first
Missions are basically an organization's means of living out its visions. For example, in 1982,
Johnson & Johnson was confronted with a crisis when seven people died after ingesting Tylenol
capsules laced with cyanide. News traveled quickly and caused a nationwide panic.
I don't think they can ever sell another product under that name. There may be an advertising
person who thinks he can solve this and if they find him, I want to hire him, because then I want
him to turn our water cooler into a wine cooler. — Advertising genius, Jerry Della Femina as
told to the New York Times right after the crises.
However, Johnson & Johnson won the public's heart and trust with its commitment to protecting
its customers during the Tylenol poisoning crises. They dealt with the crises by living their
corporate business philosophy — Our Credo (similar to an ethos in that it defines one's system
of values and beliefs). It was crafted in the 1940's by Robert Wood Johnson who believed that
businesses have responsibilities to society. The credo stressed that it was important for them to
be responsible in working for the public interest.
Thus, they approached the crises by living their Credo. From the start of the crises they:
• informed the public and medical community
• established relations with the Chicago Police, FBI, and the Food and Drug
Administration
• stopped production of Tylenol
• recalled all Tylenol capsules from the market
• immediately put up a reward of $100,000 for the killer
In turn, the media did much of the company's work by praising Johnson & Johnson's socially
responsible actions. Johnson & Johnson's top management put customer safety first, NOT their
company's profit or other financial concerns. In other words, they did the right thing. At first, it is
easy to believe that such a move was against the best interest of the company's stockholders, but
when you put customers and employees first, it actually benefits the stockholders in the long run.
Johnson & Johnson has effectively demonstrated how a major business ought to handle
a disaster. This is no Three Mile Island accident in which the company's response did
more damage than the original incident. What Johnson & Johnson executives have done is
communicate the message that the company is candid, contrite, and compassionate, committed to
solving the murders and protecting the public. — Jerry Knight, The Washington Post on October
11, 1982.
Once the crises ended, they started actions to put their organization back on track:
• New Tylenol capsules were introduced in November with triple-seal tamper resistant
packaging
• Provided $2.50 coupons that were good towards the purchase of any Tylenol product
• Over 2,250 sales people made presentations to people in the medical community
Johnson & Johnson could have disclaimed any possible link between Tylenol and the seven
sudden deaths. In other similar cases, companies put themselves first and ended up doing more
damage to their reputations than if they had immediately taken responsibility for the crisis. For
example, traces of benzene were found in Source Perrier's bottled water. Rather than holding
themselves accountable for the incident, they claimed that the contamination resulted from
an isolated incident and recalled a limited number of Perrier bottles in North America. When
benzene was found in Perrier bottled water in Europe, an embarrassed Source Perrier had to
announce a worldwide recall on the bottled water and were immediately criticized for having
little integrity and for disregarding public safety.
Lesson learned: Discover your vision, set your mission, and then live by it
The author is Head of Department of Managment at Doon PG college of Agri Science & Tech., at Selaqui, Dehradun.