The Power of an Apology

In 25 years as a communications advisor I have been involved in many a crisis, and many many more dramas. Some of the former could have remained dramas, some of the latter we managed to quell. In most cases a crisis has some kind of ‘moral’ aspect for the audience that is the source of the real risk. In some cases that is rightly so, in some cases it’s a beat up. In some cases, a heartfelt apology can save you.

Now, of course there are issues in which the protagonist gets everything they deserve. I put the ‘Coldplay’ incident in that category. To be clear, not because they were cheating on their spouses, but because they were breaking Codes of Conduct that are put in place in corporates to protect vulnerable people. As a boss, the culture comes from you – you break the rule and you make your people more vulnerable. Break it with the person that applies the rule and you are well… you got what you deserved, both of you.

Anyway, having launched a website recently, I have been unearthing articles that I have written in the past few years that have never been published. I share here my views on a ‘crisis’ that could possibly have been just a drama. Interested in people’s thoughts.

What if Brad Banducci had…..

They knew he had walked out of the Four Corners interview (19 Feb 24), they would have bet truck loads of money that bit would be used.

What if he had pre-empted the program with a personal heartfelt message through his social channels (amplified but not published by the corporate accounts). Something like:

‘Tonight Four Corners will air program on competition in the supermarket sector. During the interview taping last week I spat the dummy and walked out. I have not seen an advance of the program, but I am absolutely confident that it will include that footage – I can’t blame them for that.

I lost my cool and behaved like a child. That behaviour does not meet my own standards, and it was highly unprofessional. It is not good enough and I know that Australians, who are my 200,000 strong team, our customers and our shareholders, and my family, deserve a whole lot better.

It was 6am, I had not slept well and I was rattled and frustrated (note: I understand this was the case). I believe in accountability, but I was exasperated to be facing a ‘media inquiry’ as well as not just one but six parliamentary inquiries into our sector. They are costing the company real money, and distracting mine and the board’s focus from serving Australia. And I was arrogant, I did not prepare well enough for the interview.

For all of that I apologise. I will step up.’

Banducci led one of our ‘emergency services’ during the pandemic. Across the country Woollies and Coles kept us fed, kept us employed (in fact 20-30,000 more jobs in store and in radically enhanced delivery services), and kept us in loo roll as best they could. His weekly email was probably one of the most widely read missives. It was mostly heartfelt, sometimes funny, always informative and approachable. It was regularly discussed in the media, and ‘Brad’ became a figure of reliability that was a source of comfort in addition to the trusted information.

He knows how to do communication – and obviously has good advisors. He could have weathered the storm to continue a smooth transition to his already set departure date.

It was the right thing for him to go. Not because of the media beat up about price gouging (no one talks about how Woollies and Coles balance the cross subsidising needs of rural vs metro populations), but because he didn’t meet the standards of behaviour for a CEO. If he had, by being humble enough to apologise for being human, he might have continued being one of the valued leaders we need in corporate Australia.

Four Corners costs a purported $1 million an episode to put together. To justify that price tag for the public broadcaster there has to be an ‘outcome’ – in this instance there was already a Parliamentary Inquiry, so it had to be a ‘scalp’. Not everyone can run a piece of truly national infrastructure at an operational, political, or financial level. For their own purposes the media killed the career of an Australian that could. Both the leader and the media in this ‘crisis’ could have done better for our country.