While I was helping lead a crisis communications workshop earlier in the week, I received a question that arises in nearly all events such as this: “When should the CEO speak?”

“Never,” I thought to myself, knowing full well what the questioner was thinking. Toyota Motor Company CEO Akio Toyoda has been much in the news lately, as much for his congressional testimony regarding his company’s high-profile product recall as for being lampooned by David Letterman.

Generally speaking, we recommend that CEOs be used as company spokespeople during emotional, crisis situations only as a last resort. The CEO is the last line in defense of credibility and can save a crisis recovery effort, or doom it. Once a CEO speaks, everyone else in the company surrenders the right to comment on the topic.

While the jury is very much out regarding how effective Toyota’s CEO intervention will be, the best crisis case study involving CEO intervention probably is the Tylenol tampering case in the early 1980s. Johnson & Johnson CEO James Burke chose to become visible and follow the company’s credo, written in 1943. The credo is a rather lengthy document, but begins thusly:

“We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.”

As a result of Johnson & Johnson’s quick response and Burke’s earnest approach, the corporate giant avoided what could easily have been a fatal blow.

Will Toyota do the same? Stay tuned.