Reprint: R1101A
When the chief executive of Maclaren USA learned about a rise in injuries to children’s fingers involving the hinges on his strollers—which were similar to those used for almost all strollers on the market—he and his colleagues immediately began working with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to plan a voluntary “recall,” during which the company would send protective hinge covers to anyone who wanted them. Maclaren saw this as an opportunity to educate parents about stroller safety as well as to protect children. But news of the recall was leaked early in a sensationalist report, and the company was unprepared to cope with the response. Thousands of concerned parents tried to reach Maclaren, causing its communications systems to crash: Callers got a busy signal; e-mails went into the ether; the website froze. The company’s executives realized that they would need four times as many extra employees and three times as many hinge covers as they’d originally thought to manage the recall. Rastegar explains how and why their careful planning fell short, discusses the lessons he and Maclaren learned, and affirms his commitment to pursuing industrywide safety standards.
Like many CEOs, I subscribe to a daily e-mail service that notifies me when my company is mentioned in the news. On the morning of November 9, 2009, a Monday, the first headline I saw was “Maclaren Stroller Recall.”
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