Expert Recall

By Mike Rozembajgier

I just returned from a week long trip to D.C. During the week, I had the occasion to meet with various product safety regulators and regulatory attorneys to discuss the continuing evolvement of the rulemaking relative to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 and the impact these new rules and regulations for recall compliance will have on the manufacturers and retailers subject to CPSIA. There is a consensus that one clear goal of CPSIA is to make product recalls more effective.

On the plane ride home to Indianapolis, I was reading an article excerpted from Dov Siedman’s 2007 book, How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life).

In the book Seidman writes: “When we lived in a Just Do It world (his metaphor for the decade of the ‘90s), we did not care how you got things done if you generally played by the rules. As long as you did not drop beneath the floor set by rules, we let it slide. Society was content to judge people by their ability to make the numbers — in other words, by WHAT they did, not HOW they did it. As the world became more transparent, however, we began to distinguish compliance from behavior; or, to put it another way, because everyone could see your methods, HOW you did something became as important as what you did. It was suddenly insufficient just to follow the rules, because we could now see and understand people’s relationship to rules. In a hperconnected and hypertransparent world, you can no longer Just Do It; you must Just Do It Right.”

Leading companies involved with product recalls are learning that mere compliance with the CPSIA rules is no longer acceptable in today’s world and markets. Their recall management actions will be scrutinized and examined by the consumers who buy their products and trust their brands, as well as by regulatory agencies with expanded powers and authority.

Companies can no longer afford to focus on minimal recall compliance or in just completing the task (the What); rather they should focus on performing with excellence and exceeding expectations (the How).

When faced with a product recall companies should view it as an opportunity to truly differentiate themselves in the market and distance themselves from their competitors.

Just doing a recall is a far cry from doing it right. And doing it right will be rewarded in improved brand recognition, increased sales and better product safety.

Stericycle ExpertRECALL™ is the industry leader in recall logistics and regulatory compliance for consumer product, pharmaceutical, medical device, juvenile product, and food and beverage recalls. ExpertRECALL’s professionals are experts in recall management who can help you streamline the entire product recall process.