By Zachary M. Seward
Mike Lazaridis, the founder and co-CEO of Research In Motion, took to YouTube yesterday to apologize for the BlackBerry service outages that plagued his customers this week. In doing so, he joined many other corporate chiefs who have chosen to eat their hat on Google’s video-sharing service, staring into their webcams (or professional video equipment) for an effect that’s somewhere between intimate and “David After Dentist.” Below, we’ve collected 10 such examples of executive YouTube apologia, which is clearly an emerging art form.
Research In Motion
Lazaridis, sporting a BlackBerry polo shirt and standing in front of a neutral backdrop, offered a straightforward explanation of the BlackBerry outage without offering a timeline for when service woud be fully restored. Time to the word “apologize”: 18 seconds.
Netflix
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, took his YouTube video to the great outdoors last month and brought along COO Andy Rendich. Hastings said he was sorry for poorly communicating recent Netflix price increases, then surprised everyone by announcing that he intended to spin off his DVD business into a separate company called Qwikster. (There was no YouTube video when Hastings abandoned that plan this week.) Time to the word “apologize”: 17 seconds.
Groupon
“Konichiwa,” began Groupon CEO Andrew Mason’s apology in January after the company faced a backlash in Japan over a botched New Year’s deal. He delivered the rest of the mea culpa in English with Japanese subtitles. Time to the word “sorry”: 34 seconds.
JetBlue
David Neeleman, former CEO of JetBlue, was an early adopter of the YouTube confessional, turning to the form in 2007, when a breakdown of the airline’s operations stranded more than 130,000 passengers. Clearly working without a script, Neeleman outlined new policies at JetBlue but never explicitly apologized in the video. He lost his job a few months later.
Domino’s Pizza
In 2009, two Domino’s employees posted a video that — well, let’s not relive the incident, but it wasn’t anything you would want on your pizza. Patrick Doyle, then president of Domino’s USA, was dead serious in his YouTube apology: “Two team members have been dismissed, and there are felony warrants out for their arrest.” Time to the word “apologize”: 14 seconds.
Skype
Skype CEO Tony Bates was low-key and appropriately low-tech when his Internet calling service suffered a worldwide outage last year. “I know this has been a very tough 24 hours for many of our users,” Bates said, striking an empathetic note. He also promised credits for paying customers. Time to the word “apologize”: 13 seconds.
Eurostar
The high-speed railway that connects London and Paris was felled by snow in December 2009, leaving some passengers stranded between the two cities. Richard Brown, then CEO of Eurostar, didn’t exactly find a flattering light source, leading one YouTube commenter toobserve, “He looks like a kidnap victim.” But his apology was rapid, unequivocal and didn’t slack on reparations for affected customers. Time to the word “sorry”: 5 seconds.
BP
How could this list not include BP? The company apologized in various forms after last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but the least equivocal mea culpa may have been then-CEO Tony Hayward’s 60-second TV spot that BP also posted to YouTube. Standing on the Gulf shoreline with a soundtrack of seagulls and b-roll of the spill, Hayward detailed BP’s cleanup efforts and said taxpayers wouldn’t have to pay. (He didn’t repeat his infamous line, “I’d like my life back.”) Hayward resigned later that summer. Time to the word “sorry”: 38 seconds.
Sony
Sony executives famously bowed at a press conference to apologize for a prolonged outage of PlayStation services and a breach of customer data. Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s president of consumer products, also took to YouTube from his minimalist office. His apologia is notable for the chill-out music playing in the background. Time to the word “apologies”: 19 seconds.
Toyota
When Toyota faced massive safety recalls last year, most of the apologizing was done at press conferences in Japan. But the heads of Toyota’s international operations sometimes chose YouTube as their forum, including Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., and Jon Williams, commercial director of Toyota Great Britain. Lentz went for compassion while Williams preferred an extraordinarily detailed explanation of the problem. Time to the word “apologize” or “sorry”: 20 seconds (Lentz) and 4 minutes, 7 seconds (Williams).
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