The Message Makeover Podcast: Delivering Bad News – Tim Cook gets an A (as in Apple)

Last week Apple revised revenue guidance down for the holiday quarter by 9%.  They communicated the news in a detailed letter to investors and also in a CNBC interview with CEO Tim Cook.

In this episode of the Message Makeover, we discuss the pitch-perfect manner in which Apple delivers the bad news.  The first six words of the letter epitomize the clarity of the communication – “Today we are revising our guidance…”  In our workshops, we borrow from the military and preach Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF), and this is a textbook example of that concept.  We also liked the competent way Cook fields the interviewer’s questions.  He refuses to get rattled and stays on message. 

We wish he would have given us more inspirational fuel and painted a richer canvas about the good things to come at Apple if only in general terms.  However, it’s our opinion that Cook communicated clearly and powerfully despite the knowledge that the revenue miss would inevitably be the headline.  Enjoy the episode!

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The Message Makeover Podcast: Delivering Bad News – Tim Cook Gets an A (as in Apple)

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Dan Cooney

A book about change

The Latimer Group’s CEO Dean Brenner is a noted keynote speaker and author on the subject of persuasive communication. He has written three books, including Persuaded, in which he details how communication can transform organizations into highly effective, creative, transparent environments that succeed at every level.