This blog usually reviews public apologies that fall short of the mark, but here’s one that has been praised: it was by Andrew Benin, chief executive of Graza, a small startup that sells olive oil. Graza started just a year ago, and this was its first holiday season. Apparently some gift packages arrived late, or poorly packaged, or with damaged labels. So Mr. Benin sent an email to everyone who had ordered Graza’s olive oils in the previous 60 days to apologize.

The subject line of the email was, “Learning from our mistakes.” This is a promising start, indicating that the writer knows that he made a mistake, and that he has ideas about how to prevent future mistakes – two critical elements of an effective apology.

He went on to acknowledge that the gift packaging was inadequate, that the company did not communicate well, and to say that he was sorry. A good apology lets the recipient know that the offender knows what they did wrong, and how that affected the recipient.

The final element of a good apology is some form of repair or restitution. In this case, the email offered a small discount on future orders of olive oil.

It landed well in the eyes of many recipients. One was Ben Cohen, whose shipment of Graza olive oil leaked and was poorly wrapped. He wrote in an article for the Wall Street Journal that he was won over by Mr. Benin’s apology. Apparently hundreds of other recipients wrote Mr. Benin to thank him. “Thanks for your honesty,” one wrote back. “These messages go a long way,” another wrote.

The article notes that business apologies are tricky; research shows that repeatedly apologizing is actually worse for a business than not apologizing at all. Research also shows that the most effective apologies cost the business something, so a coupon or discount can be even more effective than an apology.

Mr. Cohen notes one of the ironies of a good apology: it can make the relationship better than it was before the unfortunate incident happened. This is true of inter-personal relationships, and it can be true of business/customer relationships too.

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, the crypto-trading firm connected with FTX, issued an apology when she plead guilty to fraud and other offenses in a New York federal court this week.

There was no public notice of the hearing, but a transcript was released yesterday. She agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation in exchange for the prospect of a lighter sentence.

“I am truly sorry for what I did. I knew that it was wrong. I want to apologize for my actions to the affected customers of FTX, lenders to Alameda, and investors in FTX. Since FTX and Alameda collapsed in November 2022, I have worked hard to assist with the recovery of assets for the benefit of customers and to cooperate with the government’s investigation. I am here today to accept my responsibility for my actions by pleading guilty.”

When the judge asked Ellison if she knew what she did was illegal, she replied, “Yes.”

She described how she and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried “provided materially misleading financial statements to Alameda’s lenders.” Alameda, she said, lent a lot of money to Mr. Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives, then used FTX customer funds to finance its loans to Alameda. She said their quarterly financial reports obfuscated “the extent of Alameda’s borrowing.” She acknowledged that FTX’s investors were kept in the dark about the nature of the co-mingled relationship between FTX and Alameda: “I agreed not to publicly disclose the true nature of the relationship between Alameda and FTX.”

Plea deal apologies are notoriously suspect, but we can still scrutinize them for clues to good apologies. She takes responsibility, and doesn’t try to place all the blame on her former boyfriend, Mr. Bankman-Fried. She goes into detail regarding what she did wrong, and she acknowledges the various groups of people she hurt.

The statement, “I have worked hard to assist with the recovery of assets for the benefit of customers,” sounds too canned. We would prefer to hear something like, “I know lots of innocent people lost a ton of money because of my greed, and I’m going to do whatever I possibly can to try to get some of that back for them.”

There’s also no reason given for her new-found remorse, leaving us to assume that, had she not been caught, she wouldn’t be sorry.

But her statement makes their fraud sound much bigger, longer and more serious than what Mr. Bankman-Fried has said about it so far. It’s never easy to admit one’s mistakes, and Ms. Ellison has taken a step in the right direction.