Firestone Tire Recall - Busniness Ethics Case

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competitor’s model

Ford formed a crisis management team that formulated a tactful & hastened recall procedure for the tires.

Ford closed the factory for a period of 3 weeks as the company worked on re-designing the 2002 Ford Explorer. They included adjustments that made the vehicle less likely to roll over or impart much pressure on the tires.

Q3] Stakeholder & shareholder impact - What possible ethical implications are involved in accepting responsibility versus blaming others?

Accepting responsibility

Loss of customers

Receiving law suites

Facing trouble in the future

Blaming Each Other

Dissolved trust between the parties

Compromised business relationships

Other Implications

Large retailers remove Firestone brand from their sales floor

Small retail operation alter their production line to avoid bankruptcy

Strict quality inspection procedures were introduced

Other tire manufacturers increase production to reduce tires shortage

Ford & Firestone stock price and image was decreased and tarnished respectively.

Other tire companies (Goodyear and Michelin) changed their marketing strategy that increased their production to fill the potential gap of tire shortage.

Q4] Recommendation - Suggest measures that Firestone could take to improve the quality in the future?

- Invest in a proper and state-of-the-art manufacturing plant

- Customer relationship and interaction model would need to be improved to sustain their trust and loyalty in the products and services provided by the company.

- Strategy improvement to shift focus from cheaply priced products to safe, reliable and quality products. This would also challenge the strategies adopted by other competitors to maximise their competitive edge.

- Introduce a quality assurance department: Improve on the occupational health and safety management. Injecting a proper system to execute safety tests on products before commissioning them to the market.

- Better internal communication process to have a risk communication process team that is involved in all components of the organisation from earlier on e.g. in product development from conceptualization to execution

This not only works towards managing any imminent crisis but also avoiding any crisis from occurring.

- Cross departmental awareness creation and culture shift on the importance of product quality, adherence to regulations and empowerment to assume a whistle-blower attitude when issues and realized.