The Corporate Apology: Is United Only Sorry It Got Caught?
The United Airlines fiasco sheds light on some deeper issues on attitudes that companies have towards stakeholders and profits.
As many people know by now, chaos recently erupted when a United passenger was forcibly and involuntarily removed from a flight when the seat was needed at the last minute for an employee. Video footage of the incident surfaced, and has now been viewed countless times around the world. The horrific video shows the violent encounter in which the 69-year old man is screaming and bleeding as he is dragged by his hands and feet from the plane.
There have been countless articles about this conundrum, many touting it as a “PR disaster” and commenting on the CEO’s failure to handle the situation appropriately. I certainly agree that the situation was handled very poorly, but this incident did not happen in a vacuum, and neither did the company response to it. I believe that this incident shed light on attitude problems that United, and companies in general, have.
The CEO initially released a statement, seemingly standing by the company’s actions.
“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.”
-Oscar Munoz, CEO, United Airlines
The response? A collective “yikes” from everybody watching. People were outraged at the incident, and then even more mad at the CEO’s callous response. In came a flood of social media posts of people condemning United, speaking up about their own bad experiences with the company, and generally just poking fun at the whole thing.
After the public outcry became too large to ignore, the CEO did attempt to backpedal, issuing a second statement, where he apologized and attempted to explain the reasoning behind the incident, and finally, a third statement where he called the incident “truly horrific”. At this point, however, it was much too late and people viewed this response not as genuine, but an attempt to prevent any further damage to the company’s reputation.
If I’m being honest, this whole fiasco has made me think a lot about the concept of the “corporate apology”- how companies apologize after a scandal or crisis to save face- and it reminds of a different concept, one that I believe Rihanna phrased quite well when she said in her song ‘Take a Bow’:
Don’t tell me you’re sorry, cause you’re not. Baby when I know you’re only sorry you got caught.
OK, to be fair, in this context Rihanna is talking about a cheating partner. But the idea still applies: the apology from United Airlines felt especially insincere given the CEO’s initial statement that lacked any semblance of remorse. To make matters worse, United Stock prices had plunged the day after Munoz issued his first, insensitive statement. This made it hard to see his second and third apologies as anything other than a desperate attempt to reverse the damage.
This, to me, is disheartening, and reflects a broader issue: many companies today are simply putting profits first. Above all else. Including people. Many companies do not seem hesitant to ignore the effects that their actions can have on individuals, or large groups of people- unless it begins to interfere with the company’s ability to make a profit. Of course, making a profit is an important aspect of any business. But when did it become something we blindly hurtle towards, with no regard for the toes we step on, or the lives we damage, or the (pardon me) people we drag around in the process?
This is not a United Airlines issue. It is an issue that United Airlines has, but it is certainly not exclusive to United Airlines. Some companies may not be in the same place as United yet, because they simply haven’t been caught. And of course, there are some companies out there that are doing things right, and do generally care about more than simply chasing profits.
But for those that have been seemingly irrevocably seduced by the idea of an ever-increasing profit, what can be done? What should be done? Hopefully, this whole debacle will serve as a lesson for United, and for all companies and their leaders in general. United became embroiled in an incident and ensuing public scandal, and they handled it poorly, shedding light on deeper flaws within the company’s culture and attitudes towards its stakeholders. And as United has (hopefully) learned, these deep-seated issues are not something that can be remedied with a simple apology. This is going to require some reworking in the organizational culture of the company, a rethinking of priorities, and some changes to the way things are run. Hopefully other companies will see the ordeal that United went through, and make proactive moves now to change things up within their own organizations that improve relationships with all stakeholders and prevent incidents like this from happening in the future.
But for companies that are already in the thick of a crisis and sinking into it like mud, there are some lessons that can be learned from the actions of previous companies. One big takeaway: it is generally better to apologize, and apologize fast. People value authenticity, and are super turned off by anything that seems insincere. Hopefully companies change to the point where issues like this become few and far-between, but change takes time. So in the meantime, if a crisis or scandal likes this comes up? OWN IT.
A good example of a company owning its shortcomings is Dominos. When customer satisfaction was hitting an all-time low, Dominos took the opportunity to admit that it kind of sucked, and launched a campaign to figure out what customers wanted and relaunch its core product. In its advertisements, it owned up to its shortcomings, and admitted that people were less than satisfied with its pizzas. And the result? People actually liked the advertisements, and found the company’s willingness to admit that it wasn’t doing so great, but was trying to be better, to be refreshing.
And if you find yourself in a Dominos, or God forbid, a United situation but you manage to make light of it? Turn your apology into action, as that is the only way to make it right.
