n under his couch to finally face his fans and the thousands of people who depended upon him for their livelihood.The hot buzz is over whether he cops a plea of sexual addition (Note to file: Why does nobody ever claim to suffer from an addiction to taking out the garbage or cleaning the gutters?) or just fess up that he has been caught more than a few times in an unplayable lie. However, the business issue is whether he can restore the marketability of the the Tiger brand. Whether and how to do that actually holds some lessons for any business that finds itself in deep violation of its brand premise and promise.
1. Apologize for the damage he has done to the sport and his sponsors. I question his motives in insisting on holding this news conference right when all the other golfers who know how to keep their knickers zipped are playing in the Accenture Match Play Tournament (Accenture was the first sponsor to drop him, so it could easily be seen as retaliation). Just like would be expected of any CEO, Tiger has to answer for wiping out billions of dollars of equity value among the sports enterprises and corporate sponsors.
2. Be human. Ah, certainly there is a debate whether the human condition need embrace serial adultery, but the public is amazingly forgiving (or accommodating) to all manner of bad, even prurient, behavior if the accused will simply admit that they are failed creatures. It makes the rest of us feel a little better about our failings when those who pretend they have none finally come to that blinding point of self-awareness. Tiger needs to simply say there was no excuse for his behavior. The "sexual addition" thing is cute, but does not cut it.
3. Get off the privacy kick. When you have packaged and marketed yourself as a loving father, protective husband, good son and model of self-control, you give up your privacy. You cannot choose to capitalize on your personality when it suits you, then true to hide your character when it fails. If he uses that word in his news conference on Friday, it will draw all the fire.
2. Be human. Ah, certainly there is a debate whether the human condition need embrace serial adultery, but the public is amazingly forgiving (or accommodating) to all manner of bad, even prurient, behavior if the accused will simply admit that they are failed creatures. It makes the rest of us feel a little better about our failings when those who pretend they have none finally come to that blinding point of self-awareness. Tiger needs to simply say there was no excuse for his behavior. The "sexual addition" thing is cute, but does not cut it.
3. Get off the privacy kick. When you have packaged and marketed yourself as a loving father, protective husband, good son and model of self-control, you give up your privacy. You cannot choose to capitalize on your personality when it suits you, then true to hide your character when it fails. If he uses that word in his news conference on Friday, it will draw all the fire.
4. Ask for patience and support. Tiger created this monstrous image as a guy who could draw from within and be something larger than all of us, and it landed him sprawled on his lawn at 2:00 AM with a busted nose. Stepping into the crowd and asking for the metaphorical hug starts to give his fans a stake in his success.
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