Crisis Management in Tobacco Industry - Case Study Example

The paper "Crisis Management in Tobacco Industry" is a perfect example of a case study on management. Tobacco control has become a topic of discussion among various stakeholders across the continent. The anti-tobacco lobby groups have over time criticized tobacco production in the United Kingdom. Marlboro cigarettes are manufactured by Philip Morris International, the largest tobacco company in the world (Hirschhorn, N 2004). The main stakeholders in Marlboro cigarettes in the UK include:

Tobacco growers

These are major players in the tobacco industry. In this respect, the International tobacco control community has increasingly recognized their participation in the field, and it encourages them to diversify from tobacco to growing other crops. The number of profit growers receives from growing tobacco is much lower than the amount received by manufacturers and wholesalers.

Cigarettes manufacturers

The manufacturer on Marlboro cigarettes is Philip Morris International (PMI). Its operations are global but most of its profits come from five major markets: Japan, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, and Italy. The company’s market share in the UK is about 7%. The Altria, the parent group of Philip Morris divided the tobacco operations in 2008, allowing PMI to operate separately in countries outside the US (Hirschhorn, N 2004).

There are some organizations in the UK that are funded directly or supported by the tobacco industry including PMI. Furthermore, tobacco industries have established links with other organizations with some acting as lobby groups for the tobacco industry. Hirschhorn, N (2004) indicates that these organizations are used by tobacco industries to frustrate government health policies. They include The Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA), Tobacco Retailers Alliance, Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST), and Tobacco Workers Alliance.

The Government

The government has the responsibility of creating a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for the tobacco industries to follow (Hirschhorn, N 2004). Through these frameworks, the government is able to control the conduct of tobacco industries, and also offer support to people to reduce the consumption of cigarettes.

Public and private health organizations

According to Hirschhorn, N (2004), Health Institutions are among the anti-cigarette stakeholders, and they seriously criticize cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking is associated with cancer and other diseases, and this is why health institutions are fighting against it in the UK. For instance, displaying cigarette packets installs is against the law. This indicates how the health sector is against smoking.

Non-governmental organizations

The civil sector has taken up leadership in controlling tobacco in many countries including the United Kingdom (Hirschhorn, N 2004). It is important to note that for any policy of tobacco control to be successful, civil society must be involved, and also well-organized movements lobbying against smoking should be in place. Some of the NGOs and civil sectors in the UK include the Association for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANSR), The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) among others.

Actions towards key Stakeholders

A stakeholder is a group or an individual who affects or is affected by organizational objectives achievements. Before making an engagement, an organization should understand its meaning to the company (Hirschhorn, N 2004). The creation of a dual-action plan that divides between the external and internal stakeholders is the first step, this approach helps grind organizational messages for the right audience and avoids final documents’ disorder. External actions focus on building the relationship, communication, and engagement that will happen in the future while internal actions focus is on processes improvement and building additional internal engagement ability. On the other hand, creation of a landscape that will help in revering back the engagement notes and considering the background of issues that were brought up during engagement. Each output captured is met with the response that explains the ground behind your actions or decision. Since participants focus on different outputs as the main concern, the dependability and trustworthiness must fully tackle the landscape.

According to Hirschhorn, N (2004), the action plan should be built around the created landscape. An action for each output is developed, taking into account the stakeholder's concerns and perceptions that were expressed in the time of engagement and also key points discussed. The action defines tasks and responsibilities to be implemented. Before the plan is issued, consultation is made to those responsible for action implementation. The action plan of Marlboro cigarettes should be used as a progression report for goals and purposes, information of an engagement strategy. Add in the successes in the action plan, and also analyzing the unmet goals will help in setting realistic goals in the future. Information should be merged with the plans for the activities of engagement in the future and for the improvement of the overall process. A public report document should be made from the action plan with full information that includes engagement activities made earlier and the future plans. The plan is used in demonstrating how engagement activities and stakeholders affect business operations. Finally, stakeholders’ feedback is invited in improving engagement strategy and for future plan activities.