Reading today’s story in The Daily Telegraph about an Apple engineer who has come forward to claim he warned Steve Jobs about the antenna problems that have overshadowed the launch of the Apple iphone 4, I was reminded of the recent plight of golfer, Tiger Woods.
In the same way that Apple was built up, in part by the media, over the years as the antidote to boring, technology; and as purveyors of iconic, cool, must-have gadgets of the 21st century, Tiger was seen as personifying the very essence of golfing professionalism and ability; and as someone who made a sport, mainly associated with white, male, corporate bores, cool.
However, what goes up must come down…and down…and down. While the media will happily play its part in the rise of an individual or organisation, they will be just as happy (and quick) to knock you down given the slightest opportunity. As communicators we all know that reputation takes years to build but, with twitter hash tags and a 24 hour media, just hours to destroy.
In the hours after Tiger Woods was first reported to have been involved in a car accident after an alleged row with his wife, there was a deafening silence from him and his team which the media merrily filled with speculation of varying amounts of accuracy. Similarly, the media has had a field day (or week) as Apple has stayed silent, instead just posting an open letter from Steve Jobs on the Apple website insisting there is no fault and we are all just holding the phone wrong.
As news of Tiger’s affair seeped out into the media, the kiss and tell stories started and even those closest to him eventually turned on him. Apple’s very own ‘kiss and tell’ story from one its own must be frustrating, but nowhere near as worrying as the investors who have wiped GBP£6.5bn off Apple’s share price on the back of a bad review from Consumer Reports (US version of Which?).
This weekend, the Sundays will undoubtedly pick up the baton and, with the benefit of more space and higher word counts, will start to pick over the bones in more depth. More ‘kiss and tell’ stories from former and current employees along with analyses of the working culture at Apple can be expected if they do not take control of the situation within the then next 24 hours.
Tiger Woods was unable to move on from his discretion until he had publicly apologised and talked about how he would be progressing professionally. Given that Apple are about to hold a press conference today one can only hope that they are about to start adhering to the golden rules in a situation such as this: show empathy; apologise quickly if you are at fault; and tell your customers what you are doing to sort the problem out.
Tiger Woods has yet to recover from his indiscretion both from a reputational and professional point of view. Let’s hope Apple does not suffer the same fate – for what golf will miss with Tiger’s demise, consumer technology would certainly miss from Apple’s.
