by seattleniceguy 4 Replies latest jw friends
http://www.physorg.com/news9891.html
My girlfriend's brother, who works at the company, was part of a team that personally visited the homes of people who were known (through registration/warranty records, etc) to have puchased one of the bad models. Design mistakes sometimes happen - I applaud Matsushita's determination to take responsibility and use whatever means necessary to get them out of homes.
SNG
I applaud Matsushita's determination to take responsibility and use whatever means necessary to get them out of homes.
Unfortunately, there will be little real concern for real people when this decision is taken in the board room. They will assess the risk to life created by the faulty item and work out if the damage to reputation caused by the total number of deaths is greater than the cost of a full recall.
Even if local laws require action, companies will often work on the basis of whether it is more cost effective to pay fines or abide by the law.
But in the "modern age" of internet, media and comunications, putting a positive spin on a complete disaster, can turn the whole situation round to the point where you have people praising a company that screwed up big time.
I can see ballistic's point, but Bridgestone/Firestone knew about the tires and they did nothing to recall them until, what, like 8 people died in their Ford Explorers?
It is better to come forward and admit to a mistake than to have a class action lawyer with 30 families whose loved ones perished in house fires.
Japanese electronics giant Matsushita will take the unprecedented step of sending cards to all 60 million households and hotels in the country to recall a faulty heater, believing the media alone cannot get the message out.
If only the headlines would read:
The Watchtowr Bible and Tract Society will take the unprecedented step of sending cards to all 6 million members throughout the world to recall faulty doctrines and apologize, believing that door-to-door canvassing alone cannot get the message out.
But in the "modern age" of internet, media and comunications, putting a positive spin on a complete disaster, can turn the whole situation round to the point where you have people praising a company that screwed up big time.
I see it differently in several respects. First, yes, clearly a design mistake was made. But it is not possible to design perfect components all the time. I don't know if you could characterize this as "screwing up big time."
Secondly, I believe that modern communications can be used to hold a company's feet to the fire. Compare the recent disaster in which Sony was forced to recant from their rootkit DRM CDs because of the overwhelming reaction of the blogger community.
Ultimately, of course it's true that corporations must seek profit. No company could not exist unless this was its goal. But Matsushita has worked exceedingly hard to take responsibility, and this is what I find noteworthy.
SNG
