Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

For a dozen years Proctor & Gamble (PG) had the unenviable task of pursuing a lawsuit to stamp out rumors that it had satanic associations; not your typical management problem.

The story actually goes back much further than that to the 1960s, when tales that the company was being run by satanic worshippers was being spread across the U.S especially, and to a lesser degree in the U.K.

The major catalyst for the rumor was the moon-star symbol which was used by the company on a lot of their products for over a 100-year period (1882-1985).

Concerning the lawsuit that Proctor & Gamble just won for $19-million, it related to four Amway distributors - rivals of P&G - that revived the rumor and starting spreading it all over again. The decision of the court was that the four distributors had spread the false accusations that said P&G subsidized satanic cults.

I remember this well back in the 60s when this was such a big thing. What I like about how Proctor & Gamble managed this the low-key way they went about it. To be honest, I didn't even know that this case was still going on. To me that says a lot about Proctor & Gamble.

You have to understand that for a huge portion of the American population, this would be a extremely serious matter if it was true or handled wrongly. Sometimes these types of things can be so mismanaged that the original problem is not longer part of the equation, and moves on to unconnected issues because of the emotional connection to what's being talked about.

It seems that the management of the company understood that there was no way they could make this look like they considered it stupid or ignorant, if they had, they would have alienated millions of customers; not only in the U.S., but potentially around the world.

Instead they focused on the four distributors and kept the issue centered on false accusations rather than getting into the religious side of it where they could have never won in. That and the laid back approach they took is a good lesson in how to defuse potentially emotional situations that could have had serious impact upon the company and their long-term reputation. I like how they handled this.

I also looked around to see if the company did any boasting about their victory, and in the places I looked they again seemed very laid back and aware that it isn't the way to handle this specific case and victory. Again, a smart move by those managing the situation.