In the News–Crisis Management
Opinion: Facebook’s Zuckerberg had 15 minutes to respond to privacy crisis — he took four days
Howard Gold, MarketWatch, March 22, 2018
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence late Wednesday afternoon.
In a long and technical statement posted on his Facebook page, the CEO addressed the massive misuse of personal information in which a researcher was able to release data on 50 million Facebook users without their consent to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked closely with the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
Davia Temin said Facebook missed its chance to shape the narrative in its favor, and Zuckerberg’s statement did nothing to change that. “This is a totally insufficient response, both operationally and emotionally,” she said. “Yes, it is prescriptive, yet strangely hollow, limited, unemotional, and lacking any form of apology.” She added that it made Facebook look like it was “fiddling while the world is burning.” […read more]
Institutional investors eye gun control
Ben Ashwell, Institutional Investor, March 19, 2018
Until now, gun control in the US has only been a concern from an IR perspective in terms of faith-based investors, but the high-profile public debate since the Parkland school shooting in Florida may be changing that. Several large financial institutions have in recent weeks broken with precedent and publicly committed to engagement with portfolio companies around gun control, signaling that this may join human rights and political lobbying as a prominent social issue for investors.
Davia Temin says gun control and the anti-sexual assault #MeToo movement has shown the power of consumers harnessing social media to create a targeted movement on ESG issues. “All of a sudden on both issues we’ve reached a tipping point on sentiment, with what’s happened on social media showing that the public’s mood is changing. So the real exposure here is for boards to understand the values of their customer base and their core audience, and have their own set of values to live up to. The people who think they can just rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic are in denial as to how serious this public reevaluation of issues is.” […read more]
Banks wrestle with sense of futility on sexual harassment
Jackie Stewart, National Mortgage News, March 12, 2018
As titans of entertainment and media resign over sexual harassment charges, many bankers argue that their industry already had its reckoning two decades ago and is largely free of the worst problems as a result. But scratch beneath the surface, and there is a lingering feeling among many that harassment is not only present, but it may actually be inevitable, based on responses to a new survey that SourceMedia, the publisher of American Banker, conducted across the banking industry, including mortgages and payments professionals.
Banks have other ways to combat sexual harassment, experts agreed. One of them is simply to reject the notion that the problem is unsolvable.
“Sexual harassment has been around for decades, centuries, probably even longer,” said Davia Temin “But just because something has just reached a tipping point and is beginning to change, that doesn’t mean it is inevitable. It just means change has taken a long time to come.” […read more]
Crisis of the Week: Harassment Claims Cost Wynn Resorts its Leader
Ben DiPietro, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, February 27, 2018
Steve Wynn resigned as chairman and chief executive of casino and hotel company Wynn Resorts Ltd. this month following an article in The Wall Street Journal which, drawing on interviews with dozens of people who have worked for Mr. Wynn, described behavior that amounted to a decadeslong pattern of alleged sexual misconduct by the CEO.
They included an allegation Mr. Wynn in 2005 paid a $7.5 million settlement to a manicurist who told people at the time that Mr. Wynn forced her to have sex with him.
Mr. Wynn told The Journal before his resignation: “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous,” blaming his ex-wife for “the instigation of these accusations.”
The company issued a Feb. 6 press release announcing Mr. Wynn’s resignation, calling him “an industry giant…[who] played a pivotal role in transforming Las Vegas into the entertainment destination it is today.” Mr. Wynn said in the same release he’s “been the focus of an avalanche of negative publicity” and “reached the conclusion I cannot continue to be effective in my current roles.”
Wynn’s board named Matt Maddox, the company’s president, as its new CEO and initiated an outside investigation of Mr. Wynn’s conduct but canceled it because Mr. Wynn resigned. It hired a different law firm to conduct the probe.
Three crisis-management experts analyze the responses of the company and Mr. Wynn.
Davia Temin, president and chief executive, Temin and Co.: “Wynn Resorts’ and Steve Wynn’s responses…are par for the course among organizations that choose to defend themselves and not admit wrongdoing publicly. The exact same statements could be made by guilty and innocent alike. This throws us back to a highly advanced game of ‘he said, she said.’
“Mr. Wynn’s personal responses were emotional and moving. It used to be emotional, high-valence comments were rare and could win the day. That no longer works; everyone has ratcheted up the emotionalism, until we are at a fever pitch. The problem is you can have dueling facts because, in these kinds of cases, the facts are rarely neat: They are muddy, embarrassing, nuanced, messy and open to widely varying interpretations. This is why companies often rely on outside investigations, which can carry an imprimatur of authority.
“Unfortunately, the board just fired one investigating law firm only to hire another. This smacks of expert-shopping and casts doubt on the earnestness of the board’s efforts.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
How boards and CEOs can prevent workplace sexual harassment
Jon Erlichman, BNN, January 24, 2018
Davia Temin, president and CEO of Temin and Company, joined BNN’s Business Day AM to discuss how companies can fix and prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
To watch the interview on BNN, CLICK HERE.
Don’t Be Weinstein Co. 2.0
Mary Lowengard, Institutional Investor, January 8, 2018
Davia Temin, president & CEO of Temin and Co., shares ten simple steps for corporate executives.
1. Sexual harassment is a C-suite and board-level issue. As an ounce of prevention, order an audit of every case currently under investigation and every case that’s been reported over the previous five to ten years.
2. Review previously disposed cases under the lens of today’s news. Hand over ongoing cases to a law firm for investigation, and secure crisis management counseling.
3. Any time it is determined that real offenses have taken place, fire the perpetrator immediately — or put him on leave, then fire him. Act swiftly and definitively. Actions speak louder than words. […read more]
Nightmare on Investor Relations Street
Mary Lowengard, Institutional Investor, January 5, 2018
A specter is haunting corporate America: sexual harassment. Forget being miffed over MiFID II, daunted by data security, or panicked over product liability. The next Big Crisis that will be keeping investor relations officers awake at night is sexual harassment, and it’s coming fast.
As sexual harassment has been prevalent in corporate life for decades, why would it surface now? It all started with Bill — Cosby, that is — says crisis management consultant Davia Temin, founder and head of Temin and Co. The Cosby affair demonstrated the powerful effect of victims breaking out of their “silos of silence and shame,: despite the risk of wrecking their careers. She describes what’s coming for corporate America as a “tsunami,” fortified by years of suffering and accelerated by social media. […read more]
Dying on the job: CEOs’ ages forces investors to reckon with succession
Jeff Green, The Financial Post, January 2, 2018
The same-day deaths of two aging chief executive officers show why some investors and governance experts want companies to disclose more about succession plans and the health of their executives.
CSX Corp.’s Hunter Harrison, 73, died Dec. 16, a day after news of his medical leave pushed the railroad’s shares down the most in six years. M&T Bank Corp. said Robert Wilmers passed away “suddenly and unexpectedly” at age 83 — just months after the death of his own heir apparent.
These earthly departures underscore the privacy, governance and legal issues entangled in one fact of shifting demographics: As the U.S. population ages, so too do corporate chieftains. The average age of a CEO has risen four per cent in the past decade and there has been at least one health-related change atop Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies in each of the past three years, according to executive recruiter Spencer Stuart.
“What we’re facing is the new paradigm of work,” said Davia Temin, head of the New York-based crisis-management firm Temin & Co. “When people are in the zone of what they love to do, most of them are not going to voluntarily give that up. That means that people will work later, and maybe with a little bit more of an illusion that death won’t apply to them.” […read more]
Liberty Tax Sex Scandal Draws Investor Suit Targeting Hewitt
Jef Feeley and Anders Melin, Bloomberg, December 13, 2017
Some Liberty Tax Inc. investors have lost patience with founder John Hewitt. A pension fund is asking a judge to order Hewitt to relinquish his controlling stake in the national tax-preparation service after an internal review found that while running the company, he had sex in his office and hired relatives of female employees with whom he’d had romantic relationships.
The Liberty case is just the latest in a string of firings of prominent men as sexual harassment accusations shake public figures in fields as diverse as the media, the U.S. Congress and restaurant chains. Even company founders such as Uber’s Travis Kalanick and the Weinstein Co.’s Harvey Weinstein have lost their jobs following harassment allegations.
Company boards are increasingly being drawn into the fray. “This is opening up a whole new area of liability for corporations,” said Davia Temin, president and CEO of Temin & Co., a New York-based crisis management company. “They have to seriously look at the risks this behavior poses to the company.” […read more]
Crisis of the Week: NBC News Faces Questions After Lauer Firing
Ben DiPietro, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, December 12, 2017
NBC News is in crisis after it fired longtime “Today” show anchor Matt Lauer after he was accused of sexual misconduct. The move came hours before the magazine Variety published a story detailing some of Mr. Lauer’s alleged actions with female staffers. The day after the firing, two more women came forward to accuse Mr. Lauer, who apologized and said: “Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed.”
NBC News President Andy Lack issued a statement on Nov. 29, saying the “detailed complaint” against Mr. Lauer was a “clear violation of our company’s standards.” He said the priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe, adding “any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender.” At the time of the firing, the network said it didn’t know of any complaints against Mr. Lauer during his time at NBC, only to later say no complaints had been made to “current management.” Mr. Lack sent a memo to staff on Dec. 1, saying the company is reviewing Mr. Lauer’s prior behavior and that it needs to “build a culture of greater transparency, openness and respect.”
The experts break down how well NBC News handled this crisis from a communications standpoint.
“NBC’s handling of the Matt Lauer affair is a fascinating example of the almost-triumph of alt-fact and spin,” said Davia Temin. “In the end, though, it turned out to be a serious breach of public trust.” […read more]
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