Tiger's Apology Is Too Little, Too Late

I have tried my best to ignore everything about the Tiger Woods scandal.  His personal life is of no interest to me, and frankly I'm sick of hearing about it.  That being said, I had to watch his recent apology to see how he handled it.  If you haven't seen it yet check out the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs8nseNP4s0

I'm not sure many people watching will view his apology as sincere.  Why did he wait for 3 months to issue an apology?  Did he think it would blow over?  Did he think people would just forget about it?  He had an opportunity to speak up early on (he did vaguely apologize for his "transgressions" on December 2nd) but this press conference only took place after he lost several sponsors. 

Businesses tend to make this same critical mistake.  They often try to salvage their image by denying any wrongdoing:

Ford and Firestone blame each other for deadly tires

Occasionally companies do it the right way:

Tylenol's quick recall causes only slight dip in stock prices

Don't wait for the public to demand an apology.  Once a mistake has been made get in front of it as quickly as possible.  Accept full, unconditional responsibility.  Apologize.  Then perhaps you can move forward.