Comments on: When honesty is the best business

By: Nate

Nate — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:48:07 +0000

Talk about transparency:
http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=4540

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:20:25 +0000

Erwin,
Say more, please.

By: Erwin

Erwin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:43:14 +0000

woot.com - always honest about what they’re selling & real “cult” following developing

By: Eric R

Eric R — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:26:38 +0000

The classic recall/honesty situation was Johnson and Johnson’s handling of Tylenol tampering. It’s taught in all of the B-schools (for what that’s worth).

I also recall recent hamburger/meat recalls (I think the Wendys chain…not sure) where publications like Business Week were lauding praise on the company.

By: Paul Sweeney

Paul Sweeney — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:04:04 +0000

just for research purposes you might historically look to how product recalls were managed. I have a sense that it might reflect some of the themes you are looking at here. I think Rackspace had a huge “outage” a few months back and they fessed up fast, on twitter as well. I think it helped calm the situation. Actually, how companies handle outages (i.e. Utility companies) might provide more empirical evidence, as might looking at general “returns policies” (Norstrom?) Again, it might provide grounding.

By: Persephone Miel

Persephone Miel — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:39:36 +0000

See Charlie Beckett on BBC’s apologies http://www.charliebeckett.org/?p=652

By: tiagón

tiagón — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:52:21 +0000

right now I’m posting about Twitter admitting (in their blog) that their service is structured like Ethernet-cabled 486 machines — and why this is good. (the communication involved, of course.) it’s a pretty fresh example, but I think it fits.

By: Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:14:28 +0000

You blogged about it… Jet Blue’s response to its JFK fiasco.

By: Rob K

Rob K — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:41:36 +0000

Although I am reluctant to give any in the airline industry props since their service is generally so bad, the JetBlue CEO did admit that the service during this delay was terrible and embarrassing.
http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/apology/index.html

By: william elbel

william elbel — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:55:56 +0000

On Honesty vs Steroids:

What BULLS**T on Steroid perjury convictions.
Why don’t they get a conviction on real crimes first before perjury?

Why should someone have to admit taking steroids before any jury.
I thought one could take the Fifth amendment for any testimony venue but I surmise that is invoking the fifth is not allowed in Grand Jury testimony. If so what BULLS**T

By: mek

mek — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:49:24 +0000

How about Obama writing about his past drug use? He was honest, upfront, and the media never took a whiff of the story.

In fact, his transparency is a great example of laying it all out, and even if one judges him, it’s quick and pretty painless (e.g., tax returns, health status, etc.).

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:46:35 +0000

Ha! Good luck finding an example of an honest politician. Especially one being rewarded for that honesty.

One good example of honesty paying off; the baseball steroid scandal. The players who stood up immediately after being discovered and took responsibility (Giambi, Petitt, etc.) were vindicated by the fans and the media. As for the players who have maintained their innocence despite heaps of evidence (Bonds, Clemens, etc.) have had their hall of fame careers all but destroyed.

Of course, neither of those players has been found guilty yet.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:45:33 +0000

we had a case in the UK when the Daily Mirror published fake pictures of soldiers mistreating PoWs in Iraq. As soon as it was clear they were fakes they fired the editor, Piers Morgan.

By: Steve Borsch

Steve Borsch — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:34:38 +0000

A very bad situation with Wells Fargo blogged about here: http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2008/05/wells-fargo-aut.html

The EVP’s immediate response, *no excuses, mea culpa* and followup was amazing: http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2008/05/wells-fargo-doi.html