South African companies are starting to get a reputation for making great case studies at business schools. Local management consultancy Trillian and global business McKinsey are already a case study at Harvard Business School, according to a Reuters report. The outbreak of listeriosis and the role Tiger Brands played in it will likely be another. The assignment could read like this: write 5,000 words on how Tiger Brands could have better handled the fallout from the listeriosis contamination at its Enterprise factories (marks: 100). To answer that question, it's worth looking back at another corporate debacle that has long been part of the course work at business schools. In May 2003, Pick n Pay received a call from an extortionist who said that unless a ransom was paid he would poison products in its stores. He warned the company not to go to the press or the police.According to Ethics: The Leadership Edge by Laurance Kuper, coded classified adverts were placed in newspapers to co...

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