A couple of hours later, the owner of the car called. He told me the accident would inconvenience him, but he was very grateful to me for taking responsibility.nce when I was on leave from the university and running the regional research office for a global consulting firm, two of my staff walked into my office. The more junior staff said: “I’m sorry, YT. I’ve made a big mistake.”

CONTRIVED APOLOGIES

There have been times when I should have said sorry, did not, and wished I had. I think much of the hostility that arises when things go badly wrong can be defused if the people involved would just have the humility to say: “I’m sorry. I could have done better.”

I am concerned about the lack of willingness of business leaders to say sorry when they or their companies have made mistakes or could have done better. In cases where some business leaders have “apologised”, the “apologies” were often evasive or non-specific and came across as contrived.

The following are “apologies” from some of Wall Street CEOs and employees, as spotted on a

• Mr Alan Schwartz, former Bear Stearns CEO: “I just simply have not been able to come up with anything, even with the benefit of hindsight, that would have made a difference.”

• Mr Chuck Prince, former Citigroup CEO: “I’m sorry the financial crisis has had such a devastating impact for our country.

I’m sorry about the millions of people, average Americans, who lost their homes.

And I’m sorry that our management team, starting with me, like so many others could not see the unprecedented market collapse that lay before us.”

• Mr Dick Fuld, former CEO of Lehman:

“What we did wrong is I believe that we did not understand the contagion of one security, one asset class to the next. I believe that we did not — and I take — I take responsibility for this — I did not see the depth and violence of this crisis … I would say that bad judgments were made regarding the market, yes.”

• Mr Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO: “I heard nothing today that makes me think anything went wrong,”

Mr Gerald Levin, former CEO of Time Warner who presided over the disastrous deal with AOL, recently made an apology on CNBC’s

While it was good of him to apologise, it came almost 10 years after the event.Wall Street Journal blog:Squawk Box. He said: “I presided over the worst deal of the century, apparently ... I guess it’s time for those who are involved in companies to stand up and say: ‘You know what I’m solely responsible for it.’ I was the CEO. I was in charge. I’m really very sorry about the pain and suffering and loss that was caused. I take responsibility. It wasn’t the board. It wasn’t my colleagues at Time Warner.”

FEAR OF LIABILITY

Why have we come to this? Why is it so hard to say sorry? One reason is probably pride.

But perhaps the more important reason is the fear of legal liability when one apologises.

I was dismayed to discover on the Internet an article that says apologies are risky and that CEOs should consider eleven questions before they do so!

I was both amused and flabbergasted to discover that, in the United States, the federal government and 34 states have enacted “apology-immunity” statutes which make expressions of sympathy inadmissible. In other words, laws are needed to allow people to say that they are sorry.  It is so sad.

But I think it need not be this way, at least in Singapore. We do not have a highly litigious society and I hope we stay that way. Saying sorry often gains respect and helps prevent further damage.

I am glad the CEO of DBS, Mr Piyush Gupta, has publicly apologised to DBS and POSB customers for the recent disruption in banking and ATM services. In his letter, he wrote: “You have every right to expect uninterrupted services 24/7, 365 days a year from us and I am sorry we have failed you on that count.”

But I am disappointed that in all the many corporate sector scandals we have seen in Singapore, where shareholders have lost large sums of money through fraud, dishonesty or mismanagement, we have seldom — if ever — heard a CEO or director say they are sorry and that they could have done better.

So, what happened to my two staff?

When I left to return to the university, they told me they wanted to move on too. It became my personal mission to use my contacts to help them find good jobs because I believe the qualities they demonstrated will make them assets to any organisation.