In the News–Leadership & Strategy
How a Massive KitKat Heist Turned Into Crisis PR Gold
Natasha Khan and Kelly Cloonan, The Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2026
Just how much are 12 metric tons of stolen KitKat bars worth? A lot of promotional gold, it turns out.
It was the brazen chocolate heist heard around the social-media world: Over the weekend, Nestlé confirmed that thieves had swiped 413,793 units of KitKats somewhere along their way from a factory in central Italy to Poland. Both the chocolate bars and the truck carrying them remain missing, though no one was hurt in the theft, it said.
What the Swiss company lost in chocolate, though, it gained back in a public-relations coup—as did multiple other companies quick to hop on the meme bandwagon….
Trying to juice a rival’s bad news for buzz isn’t advisable if it’s something as serious as an oil spill or a plane crash. But weighing in on an international chocolate-bar caper is pretty low-risk, said Davia Temin, the founder of reputation and crisis management consultancy Temin and Company.
“It’s chocolate, it’s Easter,” Temin said. “I don’t think you can go too wrong.” […read more]
CEO Food Fight Breaks Out Online — but Who Wins?
Frederic Lee, Agenda, March 13, 2026
It all started with a burger.
Specifically, what began as an innocent Instagram promotion of McDonald’s most recent new menu item, the Big Arch burger, by CEO Chris Kempczinski, quickly ballooned into a full-fledged Burger War over who can claim the best bite….
Kempczinski’s video was the match that lit the Burger War flame, prompting copycat, one-upper videos from executives at Burger King, Wendy’s, A&W Canada and more — all vying to present their burgers as the most delicious in a true viral moment….
Broadly, the Burger War offers a reason to laugh at a time when there’s so much “not to laugh about” going on in the world — including metastasizing war in the Middle East, rampant inflation, rising oil prices and the continuous unraveling of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s misdeeds, wrote Davia Temin in an email to Agenda. Therefore, holistically, the Burger War is a reminder to corporate leadership to “focus on what we can handle,” wrote Temin.
“The more telegenic the CEO, I suspect the more impact they will have on their bottom lines,” wrote Temin. That’s especially since these short videos have created “buzz” in boardrooms and might urge executive search professionals to add “one more trait” to their list of CEO must-have skills. […read more]
Ring’s Founder Knows You Hated That Super Bowl Ad
Jordyn Holman, The New York Times, February 19, 2026
Jamie Siminoff, the founder and chief inventor of Ring, the ubiquitous doorbell camera, was excited for the company’s first Super Bowl television commercial. The 30-second ad presented its product helping with a task as unassailable as apple pie: finding lost dogs.
But since the ad aired, instead of a victory lap, Mr. Siminoff has been on an apology tour.
Or maybe an explanation tour. Whatever you call it, he is responding to a genuine public relations crisis.
The commercial showed a new Ring feature called Search Party, which uses artificial intelligence and images from its cameras to trace a lost pet’s wanderings across a neighborhood. Critics said the feature felt dystopian, showing the potential for far-reaching invasive surveillance….
This week, Mr. Siminoff has made the rounds on TV news shows, trying to allay users’ concerns….
Davia Temin, a longtime corporate crisis strategist, said Mr. Siminoff was emphasizing the most important point in this particular maelstrom.
“A C.E.O. who acknowledges that his company wants to give as much control to the consumer as possible — that is as healthy as it gets,” Ms. Temin said. “Privacy will always be contested until we get to the next step.” […read more]
‘Polycrisis’: How to Govern Amid Seismic Geopolitical Shifts
Frederic Lee, Agenda, February 9, 2026
The beginning of 2026 has seen unprecedented actions from the White House that redefine the United States’ geopolitical posture, most notably President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on European countries that don’t back the U.S.’s acquisition of Greenland.
Although the president eventually walked back his threats, the behavior itself represents a sea change in the U.S. geopolitical status quo. It also points to large economic impacts that corporate directors have to address in real time, sources tell Agenda.
The Greenland situation wasn’t the only flashpoint taking place in the early days of this year. Regime change in Venezuela and new breakthroughs in artificial intelligence products have upended some companies’ strategic plans.
Currently directors are living through “polycrisis,” given the confluence of technological, geopolitical and economic concerns facing the corporate world today, Davia Temin, president and CEO of management consultancy Temin and Company Inc., told Agenda.
“Everybody is concerned with the speed at which change is happening,” she said, adding that business leaders don’t want to be “left behind.”
Because everything is moving so fast in the world, it can be challenging to find specific expertise to help advise business leaders on a particular subject at a moment’s notice, said Temin. Boards should consider ramping up geopolitical briefings and walk through various scenarios as they game out strategic plans, sources said.
“Imagine if you were on the board of an oil company right now,” she said, referencing the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and subsequent takeover of the country, including certain oil revenues. […read more]
Agentic Age Demands New Oversight Framework
Frederic Lee, Agenda, February 2, 2026
As advancements in artificial intelligence technology progress at a rapid clip, business leaders fear being left behind technologically.
Companies are regularly rolling out new tools developed from AI technology, lately including agentic AI, which can autonomously perform tasks and make decisions with minimal human intervention. As a result, directors need to meet the new oversight demands that these new AI developments call for, which includes taking advantage of the new technology themselves, sources tell Agenda. That will allow them to understand the advantages — and the drawbacks.
Agentic AI refers to an AI system where the AI doesn’t just take orders but is programmed to generally run itself as an “agent,” Davia Temin, president and CEO of management consultancy Temin and Company Inc., told Agenda. Such a process raises workforce and workflow questions due to the lack of a human control, she explained. “This is a whole new area.”
Directors must stay educated in order to deal with technological advancements like agentic AI, said Temin, emphasizing “good board hygiene” practices such as bringing in educational speakers for board meetings. More and more, business leaders are also working with technological experts for help with strategic planning, said Temin. […read more]
Preventing a Crisis in Trust: How to Operate When Financial Stats Blur
Frederic Lee, Agenda, September 29, 2025
America’s corporate top brass sounded an alarm this month over President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, according to polling from the Yale School of Management Chief Executive Leadership Institute’s CEO summit.
Some 80% of the CEOs who attended the summit said Trump was not acting in the best interest of the country in doing so.
Some 71% said Fed independence had been eroded by the Trump administration’s actions….
Experts suggest these moves could degrade trust in official data, ultimately destabilizing business. Boards rely on accurate forecasts from the Fed, BLS and other agencies to plan investments and chart the businesses they oversee along the right paths.
However, there are numerous tactics that board directors can implement in order to stabilize their businesses in times of uncertainty — and avoid a crisis of trust, sources tell Agenda.
When the legitimacy of independent institutions such as the Federal Reserve and BLS come under attack, it can be disorienting, but one tool that directors can apply is to scenario plan, said Davia Temin, president and CEO of reputation and crisis management consultancy Temin and Company Inc.
Coming up with five to 10 different possible scenarios helps companies to mentally prepare for the unknown in wake of a potential lack of credible information, said Temin. When business leaders lack access to reliable insight and data, they can’t make informed decisions, and the role of the board is to make the most highly informed decisions possible, she added. […read more]
The True Cost of Firing a CEO
Matthew Boyle, Bloomberg, August 19, 2025
When Starbucks Corp. tapped Brian Niccol as chief executive officer in 2024, it cited the “critical need for a transformative leader” in justifying the hire. If performance significantly improves, stock payouts mean the corner-office switch could cost the company $130 million.
Finding the new CEO, negotiating his or her new contract and communicating the change in leadership to investors, the media, employees and other stakeholders are tasks typically delegated to outside experts.
Clients “usually want you 25 hours a day and eight days a week,” said Davia Temin, founder and CEO of crisis-communications firm Temin & Co. A CEO ouster and replacement “will take even more time,” she added. How much more? Temin shrugged: “I can’t even begin to estimate.” […read more]
In Changing Times, Boards Are Looking for These Key CEO Traits
Frederic Lee, Agenda, August 18, 2025
CEOs who can reach across ideological differences are becoming more attractive.
Whether it be shifting trade practices, the onset and widespread adoption of artificial intelligence in the workforce or ideological tensions, the current business environment is leading boards to home in on certain select leadership traits when thinking about CEO succession.
Namely, digital fluency — and being able to capitalize on the emerging digital landscape — has skyrocketed in terms of importance, even within the last few years….
Knowing how to triumph through disruption is the key to success today, Davia Temin, president and CEO of reputation and crisis management consultancy Temin and Company Inc., told Agenda. “Whether it’s tariffs, AI, chat bots, regulatory reversals or even civil unrest, a leader earns his or her stripes by navigating profitably through the chop,” she wrote in an email.
Yet many corporate leaders claim they’re reaching a “line of demarcation,” wrote Temin, explaining that, while these folks are happy to lead through the storm, the current state of affairs is getting “too wild and crazy.” […read more]
Kiss-Cam Incident a Stark Reminder for Boards — and CEOs — That ‘Wink-Wink’ Days Are Over
Lindsay Frost, Agenda, August 11, 2025
Social media erupted last month when footage at a Coldplay concert revealed that tech company Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was having an intimate moment with Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot. But such an incident is not isolated.
Between Jan. 1, 2017, and July 20, 2025, there were 44 CEOs at Russell 3000 companies who left related to misconduct allegations, seven of which were linked to employee relationships, according to an Exechange analysis of CEO departures. Both Byron and Cabot stepped down shortly after the video made waves.
Social media and heightened employee scrutiny have made these incidents more public and thus created a bigger impact on company reputation, sources told Agenda. For boards, it’s increasingly important not only to ensure the CEO is aware of and signs policies related to employee relationships and codes of conduct broadly, but also to have strong communications, succession and other mitigation plans in place to take charge of and restore stakeholder faith in the company if such an event occurs.
“We are in a transition from the ‘wink-wink, nod-nod, just don’t let us catch you’ period to now saying, ‘If we ask our people to abide by these rules, we have to abide by them, too,'” said Davia Temin, president and CEO of management consultancy Temin and Company Inc. And it’s up to the board to lead this effort, she added. […read more]
Is the Great Remote Work Experiment Over?
Frederic Lee, Agenda, July 21, 2025
Starbucks is the latest big company to ramp up in-office requirements for corporate staff, as chief executive Brian Niccol issued a directive to workers last week raising the time required on-site to four days per week, rather than three.
A number of different work philosophies have emerged in recent years, said Davia Temin, president and CEO of management consultancy Temin and Company Inc. Temin said that when she first started working, she had one answer for every request from bosses: Yes.
But now, work-life balance concerns are shifting some workers’ approach. One such example is when workers reject certain job tasks because of personal responsibility, such as having to pick up their children from school.
Meanwhile, the debate over the benefits and drawbacks of remote and hybrid work has roiled the corporate world since companies moved large swaths of their workforces off-site during pandemic-induced social distancing measures in 2020 and 2021. When and how often to bring them back has been a matter of intense debate ever since.
Many employees at traditional industrial companies and those that produce a physical product don’t have the option of not being present, said Temin. CEOs may want white-collar workers at those companies to also come in out of a sense of fairness.
Meanwhile, CEOs of more white-collar sectors initially seemed inclined toward a flexible work setup for employees that could involve remote work, said Temin. […read more]
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