Bill and Melinda Gates answered ten tough questions about their charitable foundation in their tenth annual letter. Their writing is in the first person, clear, and direct, and they do a great job of admitting their mistakes. All corporate communications should be as candid and straightforward as this. Let’s look at some excerpts. The questions…
When writers send me pieces to edit, they all seem to come with an apology. Your apology is meaningless to me. “I’m sorry this is so long.” “I’m sorry this isn’t better organized.” “I’m sorry this seems to wander around a bit.” I have one client who doesn’t apologize, but submits every piece with a…
Delta Air Lines is requiring new documentation if you want to bring an animal on board a flight. This is contentious, because people love their animals, but passengers often stretch the “emotional-support animal” idea well beyond what’s reasonable. While I endorse their bold, clear statement, their list of banned animals is capricious and weird. You…
Idiotic teenagers are eating Tide Laundry Pods; poison control centers have reported 39 cases already in January. Procter & Gamble, the company that makes the detergent pods, had responded. I salute its social media response, but the CEO’s statement is tepid. Let’s address one thing right off: failing to talk about this problem isn’t a…
President Trump’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to try to block publication of Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff’s revealing account of President Trump’s first 200 days in office. The publisher, a division of Macmillan, published it anyway. Now Macmillan CEO John Sargent has sent a memo to all of his staff about the role of publishers…
Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg said his personal challenge for 2018 was to fix Facebook. This is a good sign, but we need to hold him accountable. Zuckerberg’s brief statement (432 words, posted on Facebook of course) is direct and personal compared to most CEO communications. Let’s take a look at what he’s saying, how he’s saying…
After news reports revealed that Apple was slowing down older iPhones with worn-out batteries, the company posted a public message to explain itself. It also offered to replace your battery for $29. This statement is clearer and more transparent than most corporate statements after missteps, but not up to Apple’s usual standards. Apple attempts to…
Patreon, a crowdfunding site for artists and creators, screwed up with an ill-conceived attempt to change how it charges fees. Now its co-founder Jack Conte has admitted the company’s mistake and asked for a do-over. His apology is sincere, human, and effective. Learn from it. According to Patreon’s blog, its original fee structure had resulted…
Hackers stole information on 600,000 Uber drivers and 57 million riders in 2016. The company paid $100,000 to the hackers to delete the data, but didn’t inform the affected people until now. New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s remorseful apology is far clearer than Uber’s past statements, but never mentions the ransom. These are the facts,…