Coca-Cola Co. Chief Executive Muhtar Kent didn’t actually say he was sorry for Coca-Cola’s support of questionable obesity research in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Thursday, yet his words and tone may hold lessons for executives in similar straits.
Coca-Cola KO, +0.07% came under fire this month when it was revealed that it financially supported the work of a nonprofit organization, the Global Energy Balance Network, that appears to shift the solution to obesity toward increased exercise and away from improved eating habits. Since then, Coca-Cola has been intensely criticized in the media and on social networks for seemingly putting its business interests ahead of the health needs of its consumers.
In the op-ed, headlined Coca-Cola: We’ll Do Better, Kent, while not explicitly saying that he or the company are sorry, addresses the backlash and describes where the company plans to go from here. At a time when companies and their executives seem with increasingly frequently to find themselves in a position to offer a mea culpa, the op-ed offers a lesson in how to approach the task.
“I am disappointed that some actions we have taken to fund scientific research and health and well-being programs have served only to create more confusion and mistrust.”
Readers need to know that Coca-Cola understands why it has been criticized and what behaviors ought to change. Here, expressing disappointment is tantamount to admitting that the company made a misstep in judgment and action, which is a solid beginning to an effective apology.
“By supporting research and nonprofit organizations, we seek to foster more science-based knowledge to better inform the debate about how best to deal with the obesity epidemic. We have never attempted to hide that. However, in the future we will act with even more transparency as we refocus our investments and our efforts on well-being.”
Consumers know that companies want to make money and will seek to overcome any hindrances to that goal. So it’s important that the apology acknowledge when a company is acting in its own interests. Where Kent made a small error is to promise full transparency, which sends a message that Coca-Cola hadn’t been pursuing that goal previously.
Readers on Twitter were quick to pick up on that:
