危 wēi  danger

Hulu is a website that offers commercial-supported streaming of TV shows and movies with content from NBC, Fox, ABC and many other networks and studios.  The service can only be accessed from the US but the rate of adoption since its public launch in March 2008 has been impressive.  However, in January 2009 with absolutely no warning Hulu removed 3 seasons of a series it had previously made available – there was an outcry from some consumers.

机 jī opportunity

Jason Kilar, Hulu’s CEO chose to react by posting a very frank apology, not just to the consumers that had complained but to the public as a whole.  The apology can still be found on his blog – its openness and honesty didn’t just appease many of the disgruntled consumers, it actually pleased them.  Here’s an excerpt:

“The team at Hulu is doing our best to make lemonade out of lemons on this one, but it’s not easy given how poorly we executed here. Please know that we will do our best to learn from this mistake such that the Hulu user experience benefits in other ways down the road.

Sincerely,

Jason Kilar (jason@hulu.com)

CEO, Hulu”

Read the rest here

How About:

• Apologizing openly when your company makes a mistake?
• Never committing to not make mistakes, that would be unrealistic but instead committing to not make the same mistakes twice?

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