Litro issue: Shame on Govt. officials

Litro Gas issue has exposed the poor decision-making of the current Government – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara 

Let’s accept it. In the last two decades, the most poorly governed administration of this country is undoubtedly the current one. In my view the key challenge of this country is not the debt issue or the global economic crisis. The logic being many countries is in this emphasis. The real problem is the poor decision-making that has been played.

Poor track record – resign? 

If we track back from the sugar scam of Lanka Sathosa to the fertiliser policy in the agriculture sector to the more recent, the imported fertiliser from India where the containers were bursting, are classic cases in points of the kind of decision-making that has been happening. Way back in 2019 when there was the formation of the ‘viyathmaga’ movement, I was quite excited as Sri Lanka required this thinking at a policy level to move to the next level. But, sadly the output from this select group has been appalling. Let’s not hide behind the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If we do a deep dive to the above issues in each of them it just points to one aspect – decisions taken without respect to data. As professionals this is the most basic principle of management that has been ignored. Maybe the Sirisena era did not have this select class but the decisions held ground. Now the buzzword in Sri Lanka is who was actually responsible for winning the war? It was definitely not the current leadership that is the consensus of those who are closest to the hierarchy of the country. 

Litro issue – Sir fail?

Litro was the tipping point to explain how poor the decision-making was. I still remember one of my bosses saying that the ‘best surfers emerge during the most dangerous waves’. But what we see now is that the surfers are drowning. 

The most basic in management is that if a formula change is done for cost-saving or to give an added value, a test market must be done starting from the logistical chain to the reaction of the consumer. This was not done in the case of Litro. What we have now is 800+ explosions and one dead and many households injured. But sadly no one has taken responsibility for the issue which is totally contrary to the best practices of handling such issues. The chairmen of these government organisations are not even facing the media which is against the Holy Grail as their salaries are paid by the people of the country. 

The very own senior ministers of the government are citing the offhand attitude of these government officials as a sad day for Sri Lanka. It is also a reflection of the hierarchy of the country on their skill set they have to drive the country to performance. A word that was mentioned so much during the campaign trail. To sum up Sir – you have failed. 

If the bad decision-making that the current administrators have made, namely the fertiliser policy that is challenging the food security of the country or the LNG tender issue, those responsible would have been sacked by the company or asked to resign. But, in Sri Lanka we just continue as there is no governance or sense of being responsible to society.

Global examples 

Let’s accept it, every company will be faced with this challenge at some point of time. From Tylenol to Toyota; from Perrier mineral water to the famous beef issue in Europe. Every company has had product issues. The reason is that organisations are run by human beings and one can err. 

The challenge is that we must manage the situation at hand rather than having to get into confrontations with State authorities, laboratories and finally for Court orders and then agreeing to withdraw the product. This is exactly what has happened to Litro. 

Golden rule 

The golden rules in handling PR post a disaster: Be open. Do not hide. Do not ignore. Acknowledge, listen and provide a detailed ‘next steps’ on what a customer should do. These basic steps are as follows: 

1) The priority for a company is to ensure that a customer is safe. The best response is to publicly explain the issue at hand and ask the customers’ help to identify the faulty product. 

In the case of Litro, even as we speak there is no clear direction by the Government of how to be safe. On a daily basis people are getting injured but there is no formal response from the company. The chairman and top officials are tight lipped which is sad. Now the general public has taken to the streets in protest and all the media stations are highlighting the poor governance of the leadership. 

2) If a customer is a recipient of the mistake, then what are the next steps that one must take? Very clear instructions must be given to the trade on what to say when a product is returned. 

There are speculations that the valve or the tubes were not been able to take the pressure due to the formation change. If this is so, then the Government must give a clear direction on how this change can be done. But sadly, there is no clear communication.

3)  If you replace the stocks, reward the customer. Customers have been inconvenienced and they need to be comforted.

Let’s accept this. Litro has an accepted policy of taking back cylinders and refilling and re-supplying. If this is already in place then, the recall process could have been pressed. All that was required was for the household to manage for two or three days until the turnaround takes place with the corrected product. But sadly, no decision and hence daily people are being injured. Namely the poor who have no voice. Most of the injured outside Colombo is also a mystery.

4)  Be very clear to communicate what action will be taken on the faulty products so that competitors cannot create viral stories about your brand. This helps the brand rebuild credibility.

There is no need to discuss this point as the corrective action is not even known to the minister in charge whilst the whistle blower from the consumer affairs authority is taking the Government to the cleaners. I must acknowledge the spirit and attitude of these gentlemen. Sri Lanka still has a few great men!

5) Acknowledge the mistake and explain to customers how you intend to fix the problem and that it will not happen again.

I guess this will never come to play. The arrogance of the officials is such that they might do the correction at the expense of the general public who are in hospitals.

6) Get the Government and political authorities on your side. If not, it can become unmanageable.

Obviously, this point is not even respected. The arrogance towards the senior ministers of the Government is an indication of the poor leadership of the Government. It is a reflection of the hierarchy of the country.

6) The company must develop a new positioning in an aggressive manner.

Good companies would have to go through the next steps to rebuild. But all we hear is that people are to be arrested and the legal community going to court which is so sad for the company that has a strong brand called Litro. I feel it’s time for the company staff to sue the management for poor leadership and governance. 

Conclusion 

What history has revealed is that great companies always make mistakes just like great people. The difference is that the brilliant learn from them and go on to achieve greater heights which unfortunately Litro management is not keen to do. For that matter not even the hierarchy of the country. But a point to note is that there is a God above and he is watching!

(The author can be contacted on [email protected].)