In one of the most memorable displays, Toshiba publicly apologized in 1987 for secretly selling to the USSR equipment designed to make its submarines harder to detect. Last year, the CEO of herbal tea-maker Celestial Seasonings issued a letter to the editor apologizing for poisoning prairie dogs on its property. Next, they want you to fix the problem, to clean up the mess or make sure it never happens again. An apology without some kind of solution doesn't fly with the public, he says. But taking responsibility when things fall apart isn't a decision made lightly.
Lawyers representing the company often discourage it for fear of lawsuits from consumers.
All these leaders have grown up in our culture. It takes a huge amount of courage to tell the truth in this country. Still, communications professor Keith Hearit of Western Michigan University, who's writing his own book on corporate apologies, thinks they are on the rise. He traces their origins to religious beliefs about morality, and even to Japanese custom. He points out that after Toshiba's technology sale to the USSR, the Japanese company's executives not only apologized, they resigned.