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RECOVERY SENIOR
EDITOR ASSOCIATE
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CONFERENCE REGISTRAR EXECUTIVE
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Managing a ‘Finger Found in Chili’ Crisis By ED DEVLIN, CBCP I’ve mentioned in prior articles that there are usually three stages of a crisis: the pre-crisis stage (there is an internal warning that something is developing that could hurt the organization); the acute-crisis stage (the situation is now being reported by the news media, and there are various negative impacts); and then the post-crisis stage (the organization has the crisis under control and is attempting to recoup losses and make necessary changes to assist in putting the stigma of the crisis behind it.) Then, on rare occasions, organizations do not get a pre-crisis warning. The crisis strikes from out of nowhere and the organization needs to respond. This was the case at Wendy’s International Inc. in April. A woman said she was filing a lawsuit against the Wendy’s restaurant, because she found a piece of a human finger in the chili. The woman, Anna Ayala, from Las Vegas, claimed she bit into the finger while eating chili at a Wendy’s restaurant in San Jose, Calif. on March 22, 2005. In cases like these, where there is no pre-crisis warning, the crisis management team must be activated and ready to go. Apparently, Wendy’s crisis management team was activated quickly and was ready to go. The company investigated the claim. At the conclusion of the investigation,
Wendy’s explained that the finger did not enter the food chain
in Wendy’s ingredients. The employees at the San Jose store were
found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy’s ingredients
had reported any hand or finger injuries. Wendy’s offered a $50,000 reward to anyone providing verifiable
information leading to the positive identification of the origin of
the finger. A check of court records showed that Ayala had a history of filing lawsuits – including a claim against another fast-food restaurant. Ayala had been involved in at least half a dozen legal battles in the San Francisco Bay area.
After the investigation, Ayala changed her mind and decided she was not going to follow through on the lawsuit. At that point, Las Vegas police executed a search warrant for Ayala’s home. Investigators would not say what they were looking for in the search of Ayala’s house. A family friend, who lives at the home, said officers searched freezers, a picnic cooler in the backyard, and the belongings of an aunt, who used to live at the house. On April 25, the Philadelphia Daily News reported that the Las Vegas woman was arrested on an attempted-larceny charge. Ayala was charged with attempted grand theft related to millions of dollars of financial losses Wendy’s had suffered since news of her claim broke. Kohl’s Frozen Custard Pre-Crisis Warning Ed Devlin, CBCP, has provided business recovery planning consulting services since 1973 when he co-founded Devlin Associates. Since then, Devlin has assisted more than 300 companies in the writing of their business recovery plans and has made more than 800 seminars and presentations worldwide.
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