In the News–Leadership & Strategy
CEOs Rethink Alliances With White House
Vanessa Fuhrmans, The Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2017
President Donald Trump’s response to the weekend violence in Charlottesville, Va., has sparked a new round of soul-searching in U.S. corporate boardrooms over whether they should keep working closely with the White House.
On Tuesday, the number of members who have withdrawn from a White House advisory council grew to five, and executives including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Doug McMillon criticized the president’s initial unwillingness to specifically denounce the racist hate groups that rallied in Charlottesville over the weekend.
The fallout is testing already-tense relations between the White House and corporate executives, many of whom face new pressures from employees, consumers and activists to take stands on social and political issues. At times, those issues have put them in direct opposition with a president whose pro-business agenda they are also seeking to shape.
“This is one of the toughest times for the consciences of corporate boards and corporate CEOs,” said Davia Temin, head of Temin & Co., a reputation and crisis-management consultancy. Ms. Temin said she expects more leaders to resign their advisory posts. […read more]
Three More CEOs Turn Backs on Trump as Merck, Intel Quit Counci
Jeff Green and Jared S. Hopkins, Bloomberg, August 15, 2017
Could America’s first CEO president lose America’s CEOs?
It was a question that came to the fore again Monday when first Merck & Co.’s Kenneth Frazier, then Under Armour Inc.’s Kevin Plank and Intel Corp.’s Brian Krzanich stepped down from a White House business group set up to advise Donald Trump.
While none mentioned the president, Frazier, one of the country’s most-prominent black chief executive officers, quit the council as Trump was being assailed for failing to quickly condemn white supremacists for deadly violence at a rally Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia. Frazier said he was acting on a “matter of personal conscience.”
Frazier and his compatriots joined the ranks of Elon Musk of Tesla Inc., Bob Iger of Walt Disney Co. and Travis Kalanick of Uber Technologies Inc. — executives who walked away from business panels Trump touted, taking the unusual steps of publicly distancing themselves from a sitting president.
Who’s next? That’s the big debate, said Davia Temin, head of the New York-based crisis-management firm Temin & Co. “This conversation is viral in boardrooms right now.” […read more]
Trump versus Corporate America: Why corporations need to be the adults in the room
BNN, August 15, 2017
Davia Temin, president and CEO of Temin and Company, joins BNN to provide perspective on CEOs leaving Trump’s manufacturing council following the latest departure.
To watch the interview on BNN, CLICK HERE
More CEOs may ditch Trump
Axios, August 15, 2017
Merck & Co.’s Kenneth Frazier, then Under Armour Inc.’s Kevin Plank and Intel Corp.’s Brian Krzanich stepped down from a White House business group (Manufacturing Jobs Initiative), per Bloomberg’s Jeff Green. While none mentioned the president, Frazier, one of the country’s most-prominent black chief executive officers, … said he was acting on a “matter of personal conscience.”
As for Intel’s Krzanich, his Twitter account was peppered [yesterday] by pleas for him to quit the White House group.
Who’s next? Davia Temin, head of the New York-based crisis-management firm Temin & Co: “This conversation is viral in boardrooms right now.” […read more]
CEO Health: Shareholders Want to Know More
Lindsay Frost, Agenda, June 26, 2017
Newly minted CSX CEO Hunter Harrison is lauded as transforming the railroad game for Canadian Pacific and several other railroad networks. Although he took his post at CSX in March, investors were tasked with ratifying the $84 million pay package it would take to keep him. While considering the vote, shareholders voiced concerns about his health after a report was leaked noting that he has to work from home sometimes and uses an oxygen tank to help him breathe.
Harrison’s situation has put the question of materiality, and when and if to disclose CEO health issues, back in the spotlight. Considered the board’s responsibility, making health disclosures can be a difficult decision depending on the situation, sources say.
“[When boards are considering disclosing], they are caught in this world between privacy and HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996] and material information,” says Davia Temin, CEO of strategy and communications consulting firm Temin and Company, who has served on multiple boards. “Clearly shareholders and analysts want the information immediately, and very often CEOs who are ill want more time [before disclosing]. Different companies have threaded the needle differently and walked that thin line differently.” Subscription required for full access. […read more]
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Crisis of the Week: Fujifilm Addresses Accounting Problems
Ben DiPietro, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, June 19, 2017
Fujifilm Holdings announced that losses from accounting irregularities in New Zealand were much larger than first thought and extended to the company’s Australian office-equipment unit. The announcement left some to wonder how much control the company has over its overseas units.
The company said it conducted a review and found the losses would widen further but did say it found “a problem” with controls at its Fuji Xerox subsidiary. Fujifilm said inappropriate accounting occurred in part because of commission and bonus “incentives” for managers and employees that “placed an emphasis on sales.” It said six board members at Fuji Xerox would resign to take responsibility for the losses that now total around $340 million. It also docked the pay of all Fuji Xerox board members and two other senior executives.
Using Fujifilm’s statements and those of its executives, the experts break down the company’s crisis management performance in this instance.
“Fujifilm’s public response to its ‘inappropriate accounting’ crisis was enough to be effective as witnessed by the fact the story lasted no more than a few days in the global news cycle,” said Davia Temin. “While the company’s public responses were terse, minimal and occasionally odd, they were unprecedented in their openness and disclosure.” […read more]
Keep Calm and Manage a Crisis
Erica Christoffer, REALTOR Mag, February 2017
A crisis in real estate can occur because of poor market conditions, hampered cyber security, a natural disaster, and even threats to your reputation. But Davia Temin, CEO of Temin and Co., a crisis management firm, wants brokerage owners to know that when your business faces trouble, it’s an opportunity to exercise leadership.
Temin, who has served as a spokesperson for major organizations during crises over the last 20 years, shared some universal tips about how to respond to a business-oriented emergency during the 2017 REALTOR® Broker Summit in San Diego. “I try not to put lipstick on a pig,” she said. “Figure out what the situation is and what you can do within the bounds of the organization to address it in the right way.” […read more]
Trump’s Oval Office Tweets Force CEOs to Choose Fight or Flight
Shannon Pettypiece, Rick Clough, and Lindsey Rupp, Bloomberg, February 8, 2017
President Donald Trump is injecting himself into the daily business of U.S. companies to an unprecedented extent, spurring investors and executives to weigh their exposure to his wrath when making decisions.
The latest was Nordstrom Inc., which drew Trump’s public anger on Twitter Wednesday for discontinuing his daughter Ivanka’s line, saying sales had slumped.
Two hours after attacking the department store, Trump hosted Intel Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich in the Oval Office to announce that the semiconductor-maker would spend $7 billion on a factory in Chandler, Arizona, creating 3,000 jobs. Once again, Trump took to Twitter.
Not even three weeks into Trump’s presidency, the moves fit a familiar pattern in his dealings with companies: do what Trump wants, or face a presidential rebuke. This direct, company-by-company intervention is forcing CEOs and corporate boards into a choice they’ve never before faced with a sitting president — are we with him, or against him? — in a way that distorts normal decision-making and conflicts with shareholder interests.
Some choose to fight.
“It really depends on who your customers are, what demographic they fit into and whether you want to play towards that or play statesman-like corporate CEO,” said Davia Temin, CEO of Temin and Co., a communications consulting firm. […read more]
Trump CEO Brain Trust Huddles as Corporate America Splits
Justin Sink and Matt Townsend, Bloomberg | Quint, February 3, 2017
President Donald Trump has needled Mary Barra at General Motors Co. He’s troubled Doug McMillon at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and gone after Boeing Co., once headed by Jim McNerney. Those business leaders, and about a dozen others, sat down on Friday with Trump to talk trade, regulation and more.
In his first two weeks as president, Trump has rewritten the Washington playbook for corporate America, as he has for U.S. allies. In the process, he has opened rifts between companies over how to approach matters ranging from taxes to immigration and revealed the first cracks in companies’ tentative embrace of him, drawing criticism from some of the chief executives who were in the room Friday morning.
The meeting is the latest in a series of White House events designed to allow Trump to solicit feedback from business leaders — and burnish his image as a can-do businessman ready to strike deals. The events usually start with pictures and video clips to feed the news cycle and then a closed meeting with the president and top aides.
After the photo ops is when it gets interesting, of course, and it could be up to Blackstone’s Schwarzman to keep things in order, said Davia Temin, founder of the crisis-management company Temin & Co. in New York. If he’s allowed to be in charge, he should run it like a board meeting, with vigorous but respectful debate.
“One model is a high degree of professionalism and politeness, even while being tough and entrenched in your questioning,” she said. But “some boards are different — some boards you have knock-down, drag-outs.” […read more]
Crisis of the Week: Qualcomm Chips Away at South Korea Probe
Ben DiPietro, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, January 9, 2017
Chip maker Qualcomm Inc. takes crisis center stage this week after a regulator in South Korea said it would fine the company $853 million for alleged antitrust violations related to its patent-licensing business.
Qualcomm denounced the decision by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, calling it “inconsistent with the facts and the law” and vowing to appeal. “For decades, Qualcomm has worked hand in hand with Korean companies to foster the growth of the wireless Internet,” the company said in a statement. “Qualcomm’s technology and its business model have helped those companies grow into global leaders in the wireless industry. This decision ignores that win-win relationship.”
The experts evaluate how well the company is handling this crisis.
Davia Temin, chief executive, Temin and Co.: “Qualcomm’s press release response to the ruling of the Korea Fair Trade Commission threaded the needle very well. It is cogent, nuanced, well-stated and argued, and persuasive without being overly aggressive or over-wrought. The communication had a number of goals: to respond to the markets and investment community, to put Korea on public notice that it will appeal and begin to frame the elements of that appeal while trying to not antagonize the Korean government or the court, since Qualcomm is relying on the court’s favorable hearing of the appeal.
“Qualcomm is facing a severe threat to its business model worldwide with this ruling, and in answering it appears to be setting its defensive arguments for many countries to come. Given the importance of a nuanced response, Qualcomm could not offer up a marketing or PR-like overstatement; it needed a clear but lawyerly response, delivered by its general counsel–and that is exactly what it provided. The right person is quoted, and Don Rosenberg’s pull-out quote is effective.
“Will it win the day? Yet to tell, but the response is thoughtful, strategic and understatedly persuasive. [The company has not] answered questions from the media…but it will have to answer questions from analysts on its next earnings call, and the media will be listening in, so they will need to be consistent and additive as this story unfolds.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
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