|  Scott Regan

I struggled with whether I wanted to venture into these waters, but there are so many brand lessons in the Tiger Woods saga that I finally decided to jump in feet first.

Tiger Woods is, arguably, the world’s biggest brand. On any level. In any country. In any industry. Period. Even if you want to debate that point, it’s hard not to agree with the premise that his brand is sizeable and robust.

And infallible. Or so we thought.

As the first athlete to earn $1 billion, his brand was once sterling. He was a Golden Boy. And now, his brand is fast approaching rubbish. Accenture has already severed ties with Woods. As the scandal continues to unfold, there will certainly be others. So what can you learn from this debacle that might save your own brand? Plenty. Here’s five lessons that will serve you well.

1. Brands are often tied to people, as organizations take great strides to personify their brands. Your hospital’s brand is inexplicably intertwined with the CEO, the physicians on your medical staff, and your employees. Woods only needed to manage himself. You have to manage 500 to 50,000 individuals, depending on the size of your brand. And any one of them can destroy your brand as quickly as Woods destroyed his. If you are going to manage your hospital’s brand, you have to also manage the reputation of your team — because they are a critical component of your brand.
2. Hubris almost always sinks a brand. It certainly sunk Woods. Because of his own arrogance and overbearing presumptions, he believed that he could behave badly without retribution. When hospital CEOs begin believing their own press releases, trouble is on the horizon. And when those same CEOs believe they are bigger than the organizations they serve, trouble is just around the corner. Hubris has killed many an executive — as well as the brands they were charged to protect and oversee.
3. It takes five to 10 years to build a brand. It takes five to 10 minutes to destroy it. We need brands. They serve as a trust mark, a sorting device. We make conscious and subconscious decisions all day long based on brand trust. Ever purchase Advil for $9.99, when the generic next to it sold for $3.49 and had identical ingredients? Maybe it wasn’t Advil. Perhaps it was Philadelphia Cream Cheese versus the generic. Or maybe it was the physician who was the recent subject of a Medicare fraud investigation that you passed by in favor of a doctor a mile further away. My point is this: The next time Tiger Woods talks about the values that was inculcated in him as a child (although I can’t believe this will happen anytime in the near future), how much of his rhetoric will you actually believe? Now take your answer and apply it to your collective community next time your hospital is trying to defend its brand and the values associated with it.
4. Even in times of utter and total brand turmoil, brands can survive. However, pulling this off takes skill. And speed. Tiger Woods displayed neither as he cocooned in his home, forgoing an appearance at his own charity golf tournament and hiding behind the “private matters should stay private” comment. Had Woods stepped forward into the white hot spot light and bared his soul, showing remorse for what he had done, and pledging to take steps to rectify his sins, many would have raised his pedestal even higher. We all fall at some point. Individuals and institutions. It’s not the fall that is unforgiveable. It is not rising up after the fall and soaring even higher.
5. It’s better to take all of your medicine in one dose, that have it administered to you over several weeks or several months. Woods is learning this lesson the hard way, as new stories emerge nearly every day. With each new story, the Woods brand continually erodes, and Woods has more to answer for. When your brand is in trouble, it is better to assume that the things you are hiding will eventually emerge, rather than hope they are never uncovered. Step forward, put it all on the table, and be done with it. Not only is this brave, it shows that you have taken responsibility for your actions — even those that have yet to be disclosed. It’s easy to forgive someone who tells the whole truth, shows remorse, and pledges to do better. It’ hard to forgive someone who does otherwise.

You’ve worked hard to develop a strong hospital brand. Take a minute to think about how fast it can come tumbling down, should your hospital accidentally kill a patient, the Justice Department launches an investigation into billing fraud, your purchasing manager is accused of taking bribes, or your CEO is charged with sexual harassment. Now think about what you will do to save your brand from ruin. The time you spend planning now could save your brand in the future.