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Last week, I delivered my keynote at CEO Clubs of America in Times Square to a forward-thinking group of CEOs. Admittedly, one of my favorite companies to profile in the talk is Domino's Pizza. It's not just that I love pizza (which I do); it's also that Domino's is one of the purest examples of making the pledge to go from honest to greatness.

In 2009, Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle knew he had a problem. Essentially: Domino's Pizza was a terrible product. Most likely through corporate cost-cutting and a favoring of cash over customers, the quality of the pizza had slipped to the point where consumers were complaining. A lot. At this point, most companies would run and hide. Most would sweep negativity under the rug. Some would have made changes - but even then, only behind the scenes. Domino's, by contrast, did none of that. Here is what they did instead:

In my talk I go into depth about how Domino's didn't just change its pizza recipe - it also changed its business strategy. They truly adopted "customer-centric" as a mantra, and designed technologies (like the Domino's Pizza Tracker) to go along with its better product. Domino's took a good look at itself, didn't like what it saw, and made some big investments to be better.

When I present this case study, I invariably get a sea of nodding heads in the audience, as if they're saying, "of course this worked...it makes perfect sense." But, although it absolutely makes sense from absolutely every perspective, how many companies are brave enough to go this route? How many companies are confident enough to publicly come clean about their transgressions? You and I both know the answer, here.

However, if we take a moment to think about human nature with respect to the problems at Domino's, we must inevitably come to the conclusion that the honest approach simply couldn't fail. As long as Domino's made real, measurable changes to back up its announcement (which it did), the company was safe from harm in publicly shaming its own product. Here's why: Think about the last time a friend or family member apologized to you. What did you do? Did you kick the person while s/he was down? Or, did you forgive and bestow upon your friend a second (or third, or fourth!) chance? You see, it's in our nature to be forgiving. We're wired to accept and move on. We want to give people - and companies - a second chance.

Do you have a product, service or entire company that could use improvement? Consider announcing your missteps and asking for a second chance from your customers. We live in an increasingly transparent world, and the spoils will go to the companies who are willing to rebuild their walls out of glass. Just look at Domino's stock price from 2009 to now as proof that the honest to greatness strategy is an undeniably effective one. And while you're at it, you may want to order Domino's for dinner.

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