What comms can learn from Abbott Labs’ delayed apology

Some of the thorniest questions professional communicators face are posed by a corporate apology.

Among the Five Ws, consider the “Who?” and “When?” in the apology by Abbott Laboratories Chairman and CEO Robert Ford for his company’s role in a nationwide shortage of infant formula. He expressed his regret in May, three months after parents started scrambling to feed their babies following a product recall and shutdown of a key Abbott plant due to safety concerns.

“We’re sorry to every family we’ve let down since our voluntary recall exacerbated our nation’s baby formula shortage,” he wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post published May 21, 2022.