John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Control Alt Delete

Too little, too late. I am sorry Bill Gates.

Sure, this public admission and act of contrition is certainly admirable….but it is also too late to undo the harm done already—in fact, about 30 years too late.

Kudos for finally acknowled…ging this soul-stirring error of judgment.

But the fact that you can never completely undo the damage of this “executive decision” means the rest of us will have to continue living with the consequences.

And by the way, genuine acts of public contrition require a heartfelt apology and desire to make whole those harmed. It does not include trying to artfully dodge responsibility by blaming bad acts on others—like IBM.

I am starting to think it would have been better if you’d just said nothing at all about this topic instead of this embarrassing half-baked apology.

And obviously not reading Jonathan Miller’s book and taking to heart advice on crisis management