Dr. Neil Hair

Amusing, Mars (a very popular confectionery in Europe and the rest of the world and Mick Jaggers favourite) announced at the beginning of the week that it was sorry - but vegetarians would no longer be able to eat its product because it was adding an animal based ingredient (rennet - taken from calves stomachs) - presumably to save some money leaving the corporate affairs manager to dish the dirty although Im not so sure of the companies motives. Today - just 6 days later, 6000 emails and many hundreds of telephone calls and the company has said sorry - 'we got it wrong' - 'we love the cheese eating peoples of the earth and even more so if they're OD'ing on our products and we will abandon plans for change'. The CEO this time offered her apologies and admitted foolishness. The result? People love Mars, bit of free international publicity, initial scorn and then lots of love for listening to peoples concerns. Call me a cynic but was this a publicity ploy? Could we be in the age of brinkmanship with free publicity the purpose? Fairytale endings meets corporate Britain? Back in the UK there's a lot of press this week about the art of saying a simple sorry to customers facing the inevitable telephone call centre. Simple truth isn't it? The two magic words may well be please and thank you, but being able to say sorry is increasingly the single most important. I say sorry to my wife every day. Why dont companies get it? Worried about the legal implications of a simple apology? WAKE UP!! Be more concerned about the death of a long term relationship people…