1. Dalambumaran makes headlines. Assignment written for Kelaniya
University Final year students.
Your company introduces one of the most effective pesticides for the pest that attacks beans.
The name of the product was Dalambumaran. At the initial stage, it was very difficult to
penetrate into the market as there was so much of competition among various brands.
However, due to the efficiency of the product and a very aggressive promotional campaign, the
product was successfully marketed. Within three years, the brand could gain more than 60% of
the market share. The competitors were helpless and they could not fight with the brand in any
form. However, all of a sudden, there had been news reports that four people have died after
eating beans and about 100 people have fallen sick in Colombo.
Investigations by the public health authorities have revealed that the cause of death was due to
a residual effect of your pesticide in the beans. Further, the authorities have found that the
pesticide has been used strictly according to the directions indicated in the bottle.
You have swiftly acted upon and found that some of your pesticide bottles are tampered with
by a competitor. It has been mixed with a deadly poison like cyanide that has a long lasting
poisonous effect.
FM radios, televisions, newspapers have given high publicity to the deaths and authorities
have revealed that the reason was Dalambumaran. One newspaper reports says on the first
page in headlines ‘Dalambumaran has become mineemaran’
Immediately your products market share dropped to almost nil.
Your Managing Director appoints you as the crisis manager and he wants you to sort this
problem out within a short period and regain the lost market within six months.
What would be your plan to regain the market?
Explain by indicating the action that you would take within following time periods.
1. Your action in the first two weeks
2. Your action in the next two to eight weeks
3. Your action within the next four weeks
( You may please find cases on crisis management on books and internet when finding clues
and guidelines in answering the questions. You could also discuss how they are solved or not
in the latter part of your presentation. )
Important
Please discuss this case in detail as a group. You have to discuss the case study on
12th Novmeber. Then you are required to write the answer by hand and hand it over
to me on 19th November 2012( one week after discussion) . This carries 5 marks for
the exam. Total 5 marks will be given for those who present on the day of
presentation and forward the written answer.
This is the first case study that we hope to do in the class and there would be 5 more
to come.