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In the News–Women & Girls Leadership

“When turmoil rules, go in.” — Lao Tzu

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’s Barra Showing Compassion Contrasts With Mishandlers

Matt Townsend, Bloomberg, March 20, 2014

GM CEO Mary Barra took a critical step this week in framing herself as a compassionate leader, invoking the fact she’s a mother as she said she was sorry for the lives lost in accidents linked to a defect that spurred the recall of 1.6 million cars. It was in stark contrast to the seemingly unempathetic response by Hayward to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill when he was BP Plc (BP)’s CEO and declared “I’d like to have my life back” amid the unfolding crisis.

Her next step, according to Davia Temin who shares her thoughts on GM’s latest crisis, is “to shift into action mode or at least into making statements about what she’ll do to right what’s wrong.” […read more]

GM’s Barra Saying Sorry Seeks to Limit Fallout on Recall

Jeff Green, Bloomberg, March 19, 2014

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra apologized for the lives lost in accidents linked to an ignition defect and pledged an aggressive probe into why a recall took so long, in her boldest effort yet to limit damage from safety lapses at the largest U.S. automaker. Her apology is just the start, says Davia Temin. “She will be judged on how she handles the next 95 percent of it.” […read more]

Levo League’s New Model for Millennial Media

Diane Brady, Bloomberg Businessweek, February 17, 2014

With so many companies chasing gen Y women, why is Levo League getting so much buzz? Sure, Levo Chief Executive Caroline Ghosn is the daughter of Carlos Ghosn, who runs both Nissan Motor and Renault . Ms. Ghosn and her Levo co-founder, Amanda Pouchot, are both millennials themselves. And it helps to have support and $1.25 million of seed money from such investors as Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and AOL’s Susan Lyne. Scoring interviews with such folks as Warren Buffett will also put you on the map.

But Levo has built an audience of 8 million since 2012 by filling a need, not attracting big names. Its mission to empower young women in the first 10 years of their careers is backed up by a breezy mix of self-help articles, digital access to mentors, job postings, and live chats with prominent role models. The group also has 23 local chapters to connect offline.

Now, armed with $7 million in venture funding, Ghosn is launching Levo 2.0. The goal: to turn what she calls a “self-serve buffet” of mainly U.S. content into a global “recommendation engine for your career.” If Ghosn succeeds, Levo could become a model for using data to create more meaningful and lucrative ties with customers. […read more]

What Does it Take to be Resilient?

Suzanne Oaks, Corporate Board Member, May 9, 2013

Resilience and the boardroom: what does it take to think long-term in a world focused on quarterly results? WomenCorporateDirectors Global Institute challenges director thinking on earnings reports, consumer behavior, innovation, crisis management, and a host of global issues facing companies today. […read more]

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