The board’s role in preparing for and navigating through crisis
I had the opportunity last week to participate in the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) seminar titled “The Board’s Role in Preparing for and Navigating Through Crisis” for which I served as the keynote speaker and panel moderator.
In my keynote, I shared my experience dealing with a major crisis when I was at Baxter: Starting in the summer of 2001, a number of dialysis patients died unexpectedly in the US and six other countries. Though it wasn’t clear what exactly the cause was, there was a possibility that the deaths were linked to Baxter’s dialysis filters. As is typically the case with such situations, we didn’t have all the information, but it was literally a matter of life and death – we had to act quickly. We immediately issued a recall for the filters linked to the deaths, and as the CEO of Baxter, I took responsibility for the situation and owned up to it. In the midst of all the chaos and turmoil, we remained clearheaded because we focused on two simple mantras:
1) We will do the RIGHT THING.
2) We will do the best we can do in the time available.
