Editor's Note Ford vs. Firestone: Ain't PR grand?

In the beginning, it was a beautiful relationship. If you lookat photos from back then, circa early 20th century, you'd thinkHarvey Firestone and Henry Ford were brothers. In one shot, thepair is seated comfortably in lawn chairs, clearly chucklingtogether about something, the true picture of synergy at itsfinest. And now, nearly 100 years later, one of the most notablebusiness partnerships in history is coming undone at the seams.

					TalkBack What do you think of Ford and Firestone'sresponse to this fiasco? E-mail bsumag@entrepreneur.com.

Last month, following intense debates revolving around thestability of either Bridgestone/Firestone Inc.'s tires or FordMotor Co.'s Explorer, Firestone CEO John Lampe elected to severall ties with Ford. The move comes after last year'stire-recall debacle, where both companies were implicated in aseries of deadly rollovers. Millions of tire recalls later, with noconcurrence on whether the injuries and deaths could be blamed oneither the shredded tires or the SUV, the two companies came to animpasse. And as impasses go, they had to part company-though theirfounding fathers might have felt differently.

Now, up until last month, there was the lingering notion thatFirestone and Ford could work together to resolve the tire fiasco.But that notion has essentially gone by the wayside: Ford, withExplorer sales plummeting, claims Firestone's tires are unsafe;Firestone, with its U.S. operations likewise taking it in the chinand public opinion of the company not exactly at its highest, ismaking similar claims about its former partner's SUV. Andthrough it all, all I can think is that both companies are focusingtheir efforts on rolling out hard-hitting PR campaigns, notnecessarily on resolving the crisis at hand: that there is somekind of serious problem with either the tire or the vehicle thathas resulted in death or injury for hundreds of people. There is alot of finger-pointing going on, and evidently not a lot ofproblem-solving-and frankly, I'm not impressed with eithercompany at this point, no matter who is to blame.

You may never find yourself in a quandary as grave as this one,but what if you do? How will you handle it? I do recognize theimportance of damage control vis-à-vis your bottom line, but Ialso think it's important to clean up your mess on allfronts before the problem gets worse-rather than try to sweep thebad news under the rug and hope no one lifts it up later. Yes, youdo need to worry about your financials. But at what price?