In the News–Leadership & Strategy
EBay says client information stolen in hacking attack
CNBC/Reuters, May 21, 2014
E-commerce company eBay said client identity information including emails, addresses and birthdays was stolen in a hacking attack between late February and early March.
EBay urged users to change their passwords after the attack on a database that also contained encrypted passwords, physical addresses and phone numbers.
It said it found no evidence of any unauthorized access to financial or credit card information.
Davia Temin talks with CNBC’s Josh Lipton about the breach. […read more]
“Eight Management Lessons From the Mishandled NYT Firing”
While few people agree on just about any aspect of Jill Abramson’s dismissal as executive editor of the New York Times, there’s general consensus on this: The company didn’t handle it well. “When someone is embroiled in a dispute, you become myopic and you see the world through your own lenses and lose track of how others will view it,” said Davia Temin. “There’s no excuse for not taking the high road — no matter how provoked you feel you are.” — Bloomberg […read more]
Target CEO Ouster Shows New Board Focus on Cyber Attacks
Matt Townsend, Lindsey Rupp and Jeff Green, Bloomberg, May 6, 2014
Chief executive officers beware: Data breaches can now cost you your job.
Yesterday Target Corp.’s board ousted CEO Gregg Steinhafel in the wake of a hacker attack that compromised the personal data of millions of shoppers during the holiday season. Steinhafel’s main error was to move too slowly in shoring up the chain’s defenses even after being warned that point-of-sale terminals were vulnerable to cyber criminals.
His fall reverberated in corporate boardrooms everywhere. Since revelations that Target, luxury chain Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. and arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels Stores Inc. had all been hacked late last year, company directors have embarked on a crash course to understand the threat and how to combat it.
Davia Temin shares her thoughts on the risks to CEOs and the response necessary for these types of crises. […read more]
11 “ambassadors” of American entrepreneurship come to Athens
Katerina Sokos, Kathimerini, April 27, 2014
Preparations for a visit to Greece by the largest business delegation from the U.S., are entering the home stretch. According to reports, the 11 “ambassadors” of American entrepreneurship will come from a variety of industries, including food, real estate, information technology and investment. Their primary purpose is to share their knowledge and expertise with Greek businessmen, as well as discuss business opportunities and challenges with the Greek authorities, and to explore the market for possible collaborations.
Davia Temin is quoted on the importance of entrepreneurship. […read more]
How to Protect Corporate Brands Around the World
T&C Press Release, Bloomberg Businessweek, April 22, 2014
“Reputation management for brands and executives takes on new meaning in a global, connected, 25/8 environment,” says Davia Temin, CEO of marketing, media, reputation and crisis leadership firm Temin and Company. “Whereas one misstep by a brand half a world away used to be containable, today reputational damage is instant, hard to control, and globally open to comment and rebuke. We all have stories of cultural brand missteps, but today the stakes are far higher when brands appear culturally insensitive or worse.”
Ms. Temin will speak at the Dow Jones Global Compliance Symposium today, April 22, on a panel titled “How to Protect Corporate Brands Around the World.” Moderating the panel will be Nick Elliott, editor of The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal. The panelists will discuss why “multinationals should be concerned about their reputations in emerging economies as those nations become sources of demand as well as supply. What are the pitfalls and how should companies approach local-country reputational management?” […read more]
GM Faces More Tests as Documents Show Culture of Denial
Jeff Green and Tim Higgins, Bloomberg, April 14, 2014
The hundreds of pages of documents released by lawmakers last week shed new light on General Motors Co. (GM)’s more than decade-long failure to respond to auto-safety complaints, underscoring the struggle ahead for Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra as she seeks to refocus on the company’s new fleet of cars.
The CEO, who has spent most of her three months as the first female leader of a major automaker dealing with fallout from the recall, still awaits two key internal reports that will examine how to compensate victims and assess blame.
Barra’s ability to lead the automaker out of the recall morass, which has already cut profit by $1.3 billion, will be predicated on the GM lifer remaining above the fray and inculpable for the practices she’s trying to root out and eliminate. Davia Temin says Barra has to be ready for a marathon crisis and shouldn’t expect any relief soon. […read more]
Barra’s review, from those who’ve been on hot seat
Amy Haimerl, Crain’s Detroit Business, April 6, 2014
As General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra faced congressional panels last week, she may well have felt like it was a firing squad.
The members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee‘s oversight panel grilled her, demanding answers — now! — about why it took the automaker more than a decade to recall 2.6 million vehicles over a faulty ignition switch that has been linked to 13 deaths.
“Unless you’ve been in front of Congress, you don’t now how grueling it can be,” said Davia Temin, who owns New York City-based crisis management firm Temin and Co. Inc. “It is a spectacle beyond all spectacles. You might as well be in a Roman coliseum.” […read more]
Barra Seeks to Distance GM From Old Cost-First Culture
Tim Higgins, Jeff Green and Jeff Plungis, Bloomberg, April 2, 2014
General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra pushed yesterday to separate herself from an old GM that weighed the costs of improved safety, insisting she’s the face of a new GM that puts customers first.
In more than two hours of testimony that was long on apologies and short on detailed answers, Barra assured members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee she’d find out why the automaker took more than a decade to recall 2.6 million cars for faulty ignition switches linked to 13 deaths.
Davia Temin is quoted regarding Barra’s lack of awareness of the safety issues. […read more]
GM Seen Needing $3 Billion Fund to Address Ignition-Flaw Deaths
Jeff Green, Bloomberg Businessweek, March 28, 2014
General Motors Co. will probably create a fund of as much as $3 billion to pay claims associated with an ignition-switch flaw the automaker said is linked to the deaths of 12 people, a Barclays analyst wrote this week. GM will probably create the fund even though the automaker is shielded, under its July 2009 U.S.-backed bankruptcy reorganization, from liabilities of the old GM, which sold the cars. Davia Temin is quoted on GM’s latest response to the crisis. […read more]
Christie’s $1 million spin-control bridge report
Dustin Racioppi, USA Today, March 27, 2014
For a pricey admission, New Jersey taxpayers now have a front-row seat to Gov. Chris Christie’s national rehab from scandal. After three months of press-dodging and largely evading public questions on the George Washington Bridge lane closures, the politically hobbled governor finally gets to tell his side of the saga, and on his own terms. The cost to state taxpayers: $1 million.
Davia Temin, who runs a crisis-management company in New York, said Christie should have ordered an investigation into the lane closure and he should have released the findings of the investigation shortly after it concluded. […read more]
More News Articles