Tiger Woods' hidden [business] agenda when he apologized is par for the course.

Let's be honest, it wasn't primarily about reconciling with Elin or his children.  

More than a few people I know have surprised me as to what they think really happened when Tiger Woods "apologized" a little over a week ago for his unseemly behavior off the golf course.  Mr. Wood's contrived "press conference" in the view of some reflected the need of a now contrite man ready to acknowledge--and publicly proclaim--his regret at what foolish and arrogant and self-serving decisions he's made in his recent past.  In the opinion of some, what was seen through the TV lens were the apologies of someone who was prepared to make amends, reconcile with this wife, and live more respectfully "of the game."  

Instead, Mr. Woods' speech was designed to accomplish something very different:  he decided--likely guided by the counsel of his advisors--to execute a business maneuver that was intended to turn the business tide back in his favor.  Simply put, Tiger Woods has a huge business and financial problem--his sponsors at worst are leaving him; at best they are withdrawing to a safe distance--and paying him less money than ever before.  A case in point:  A few days ago a third major sponsor, PepsiCo's Gatorade, was the third sponsor behind, Accenture, and AT&T to drop Tiger.

It was about business and money.

What Tiger did when he read his prepared speech was fundamentally a matter of seeking to repair business relationships, preserve his financial and corporate sponsorships--all intended to begin the process of mending fences with corporations who do business with his corporation.  And, all of this gets done by his seeking to get back into the good graces of ordinary people.  Yesterday I wrote here about the reality of Q-scores [see Everybody's got a Q-score.  Have any idea what yours is?]; well, what Mr. Woods business advisors wanted to take place was this:  Tiger repairing his Q-score by inviting the public to view him anew as a sympathetic, good-guy figure.  Without the public seeing him favorably--as a likable, approachable, attractive individual--sponsors have little need for his services and, thus, the need to pay him large sums of money to be identified with and to promote their products and brands.  

Tiger Woods--and his people--have a history that makes this make sense.

Such specific cunning on the part of Mr. Woods and his handlers is not without immediate precedent:  as recently as last fall the Wall Street Journal ran a highly detailed account of how--back in 2007--the carefully considered business interests of Mr. Woods and the shifting journalistic focus of the media were manipulated to temporarily shield Tiger from public scrutiny and his family from finding out about his duplicity of allegiances [see How Tiger protected his image after a tabloid took compromising photos, his camp cut a deal; posing for Men's Fitness].  

If Mr. Woods had really wanted to reconcile with his family, or live more respectfully--to use his own words--of the game, or party with fewer girlfriends--that's precisely what he could and should have done ten days ago.  Instead, he sought to court his corporate sponsors by cultivating the fans' of celebrity beliefs that he was a different--and better--guy that most have come to think and feel about him.  

It wasn't really about personal affairs, it was about business interests.

Simply put, if Tiger had really wanted to take care of his personal affairs, he would have had no need to talk to you or me over the television about it--he'd have just lived "more respectfully," cultivated his interests in reconciling with his wife and children, and generally comported himself like a more honorable man which he now says he has become.  However, instead of doing just that, he made a calculated business decision that what he really needed to do was to take care of business--by appearing to take care of his personal affairs.

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