Part 3 of 3: CrowdStrike’s Legal Battles and the Path to Recovery

The Gold Standard In Corporate Crisis Management

Many agree that the gold standard for crisis management came in 1982 when Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) dealt with containers of pain relief medication Tylenol that were maliciously laced with cyanide, killing seven people.

Though the pills were discovered in only the Chicago area, J&J recalled all Tylenol bottles off store shelves throughout the U.S., drawing praise for its decisive action.

"It probably launched the crisis management industry," Hileman said.

Still, Hileman contends that J&J didn't perform as well when it came to handling more recent issues with its talcum powder products, which were found to contain carcinogenic asbestos. It took some time before the company settled with litigants and agreed to stop making its talcum products earlier this year.

"It's clear to me they no longer follow the principles they had in 1982," Hileman said.

How CrowdStrike Is Coping With Crisis

How well is CrowdStrike handling its crisis management? The company is getting high marks for its quick response, even as issues lingered for many customers. But Hileman and Red Banyan's Kintner agree that CrowdStrike handled initial communications poorly.

Hileman contends that CrowdStrike should have been more empathetic to its stakeholders — essentially anyone affected by the outage — and could have communicated more effectively with those not well-versed in tech talk.

Kintner says CrowdStrike did take to social media and created a blog page.

"But they needed to go further — apologizing to everyone whose lives were very much impacted," she said in written responses to IBD.