Ethics in leadership and shared core values helped Maple Leaf Foods handle a major listeriosis outbreak in 2008 – its largest operational and communications crisis in history.
Michael McCain, HBA '79, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, spoke to Ivey MBA students on March 8 about how teamwork, ethics, transparency and focusing on results enabled his company to handle the unexpected national crisis.
“We discuss our values every day at Maple Leaf,” said McCain, explaining that his employees’ shared values enabled them to make tough decisions quickly. “In a crisis situation, you’re dealing with decisions that have a life cycle of maybe only 10 minutes. The decisions we needed to make were actually quite obvious – the question was if we had the courage to make them.”
McCain said the culture of values and leadership at Maple Leaf Foods helped the company to survive the media attention around the crisis and to emerge stronger as an organization. He highlighted how consumers’ trust of the brand was restored because of Maple Leaf Foods’ leadership during the crisis.
“It’s the people who make up the fabric of the organization who are leaders in their own right and demonstrate what leadership really is every day,” he said.
A new case on Maple Leaf Foods' handling of the listeriosis outbreak written by Jeffrey Gandz is available at Ivey Publishing.