Airbag maker Takata’s CEO, Shigehisa Takada, apologised last week for the defects in his products which claimed some lives and injured many. Last month, the company admitted that the airbags could be unsafe. He did not bow to the pressure to resign, though. It is estimated that the airbags are responsible for eight deaths, 130 injuries and that 35 million vehicles have been affected by them worldwide, triggering huge recalls by auto makers.

This puts the focus on other corporate apologies, some considered graceful, some graceless because of the delay it took for them to come, and yes, for including what seems like a marketing pitch. In 2007, an ice storm threw US airline JetBlue’s flights out of whack, leading to 1,000 cancelled flights over five days. David Neeleman, founder and CEO, apologised profusely, declared compensation and published a customer bill of rights to show their commitment to handling such events in the future.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was extremely sorry for the company’s iMap app which turned out to be faulty, vowed to do everything the company could to make it better, and suggested Google and Nokia as alternatives in the interim.

BP’s Tony Hayward is infamous for saying “I’d like my life back’ even as he apologised for his company’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2010. He issued another apology soon after for this and launched an apology campaign which also mentioned the steps the company was taking to clean up the spill.

Other apologies of note include those by automaker Toyota, tyre and auto companies Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford for safety problems and recalls, media magnate Rupert Murdoch for hacking into a dead teenager’s phone and Coca-Cola’s apology to customers in Europe for its slow response to complaints of soft drink contamination that made people sick.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW