Must Reads
There is so much to read, so much to know, so many sources to follow. And the volume of news and information just keeps growing exponentially. How to keep up? Even more, how to rediscover the serendipity of learning something new and interesting for its own sake?
Here, for your enjoyment and interest, are the articles Temin and Company considers “must reads.” They are primarily on the topics of reputation and crisis management, the media, leadership and strategy, perception and psychology, self-presentation, science, girls and women, organizational behavior and other articles of interest.
They are listed below with the most recent articles first, and to the side, by category.
We hope you enjoy them and would appreciate your comments. And whenever you have any favorite articles for us to add, please let us know so that we might include them for other readers to enjoy.
There is so much to read, so much to know, so many sources to follow. And the volume of news and information just keeps growing exponentially. How to keep up? Even more, how to rediscover the serendipity of learning something new and interesting for its own sake?
Here, for your enjoyment and interest, are the articles Temin and Company considers “must reads.” They are primarily on the topics of reputation and crisis management, the media, leadership and strategy, perception and psychology, self-presentation, science, girls and women, organizational behavior and other articles of interest.
They are listed below with the most recent articles first, and to the side, by category.
We hope you enjoy them and would appreciate your comments. And whenever you have any favorite articles for us to add, please let us know so that we might include them for other readers to enjoy.
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]
Poisoned Apple Antidote: 11 Ways For Apple To Recover Trust After Its Battery Slowdown Crisis
Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, December 31, 2017
The past several weeks have seen a string of mounting customer allegations against Apple, accusing the company of planning the obsolescence of its older 6 series iPhones through its last updates that limited those phones’ battery power and slowed them down significantly.
After radio silence, on Thursday December 28th, Apple finally posted a plausible explanation of why the last update indeed does hobble performance, and an apology, clearly trying to contain the reputational damage it has sustained.
While that explanation is a perfectly adequate one – it is too little, too late. […read more]
CEOs’ Advancing Age Forces Investors to Reckon With Succession
Jeff Green, Bloomberg, December 19, 2017
The same-day deaths of two aging chief executive officers — industry icons in railroading and banking — 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 Saturday, one 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 the chieftains of Corporate America.
“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]
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.
Davia Temin, chief executive, Temin and Co.: “NBC’s handling of the Matt Lauer affair is a fascinating example of the almost-triumph of alt-fact and spin. In the end, though, it turned out to be a serious breach of public trust. At first blush, when Andy Lack announced the firing, from his comments it appeared NBC was really doing the right thing: getting ahead of the issue, showing moral courage to jettison a money-maker the minute they had evidence he sexually harassed one or more women. The statement was noble and perfectly done.
“The only slightly disingenuous note was struck when he proclaimed this was ‘the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News…’ as there have been persistent rumors about Mr. Lauer’s conduct. It seemed improbable this was the first time allegations had been made known to NBC management, despite their spokesperson’s later assertion this was true, at least to current management.
“However, Mr. Lack’s words and actions needed to be completely re-evaluated in light of the revelation Variety was about to publish that same Wednesday a damning report of Mr. Lauer’s being accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. The Variety piece was the result of a two-month investigation NBC had known about—yet it only took action on the morning of the article’s publication. In this light, all of the statements Mr. Lack made needed to be re-evaluated, and came out wanting. Then it was NBC that suffered reputational harm, not just Mr. Lauer. If NBC News can’t face the truth about its own shop without fear or favor, how can we trust what it reports?”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Getting Intelligent About Artificial Intelligence: 6 Ways Executives Can Start
Davia Temin, Bruce Molloy, Jayanth Kolla, Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, December 8, 2017
This past June, Fortune Magazine asked all the CEOs of the Fortune 500 what they believed the biggest challenge facing their companies was. Their biggest concern for 2017: “The rapid pace of technological change” said 73% of those polled, up from 64% in 2016. Cyber security came in only a far second, at 61%, even after all the mega hacks of the past year.
So, what does “technological change” entail? For almost all Fortune 500 CEOs, it means, in part, artificial intelligence. And, as we wrote in our piece yesterday on Forbes.com, “Forget The Hype: What Every Business Leader Needs To Know About Artificial Intelligence Now,” AI is on the lips of almost every global CEO and Board of Directors.
But apart from the Big 8 technology companies – Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba – business leaders, especially of earlier generations, may feel they don’t know enough about AI to make informed decisions.
We made a series of 6 suggestions of how board members and C-suite executives can begin to understand this brave new world of AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. And, after being asked by a number of people to break that list out for them, we include it, slightly modified, here. […read more]
Forget The Hype: What Every Business Leader Needs To Know About Artificial Intelligence Now
Davia Temin, Bruce Molloy, Jayanth Kolla, Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, December 6, 2017
Artificial Intelligence – it’s on the lips of the leaders, and on the 2018 agendas of the board meetings, of almost every global company today. Directors and operating executives alike know, or think they know, that this “new electricity” is going to be the next transformative force of our world. To ignore it now could be fatal to their long-term competitive position, not to mention survival.
AI-powered companies that know what they are doing — primarily born in the Internet and mobile eras — have not only gained tremendous advantage in improved efficiency and increased profitability, they have literally changed the competitive landscape of successive industries. And they are continuing to do so, as they venture into new fields, challenging a whole new set of incumbents that are not AI “natives.” (Witness Google’s Launchpad Studio’s focus on healthcare AI startups, and Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous cars, to name only two.) […read more]
Met Opera Grapples With Sex Accusations Amid Financial Challenges
Jennifer Smith, The Wall Street Journal, December 4, 2017
The Metropolitan Opera already was struggling to get its financial house in order when the bombshell hit: Multiple allegations of sexual abuse by famed conductor James Levine, who served as the company’s music director for four decades.
Those accusations, which led the Met this past weekend to suspend its relationship with Mr. Levine and launch an internal probe, could complicate its funding woes.
“The right road is to get ahead of it,” said Davia Temin, chief executive of Temin and Company Inc., a reputation and crisis-management consultancy. “You have to demonstrate, from the time you start hearing of a report…that you are taking the moral high ground.” […read more]
NBC Fires Matt Lauer for “Inappropriate Behavior”
Richard Quest, Quest Means Business, CNN Money, November 29, 2017
U.S. TV anchor, Matt Lauer, was fired by NBC news after a complaint about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.
Forget the drawn-out Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey. With Matt Lauer, it all happened very quickly. The complaint was filed against Lauer on Monday. The investigation took place on Tuesday. And he was fired last night. The speed shows how seriously companies are now taking sexual harassment claims.
“It’s about time. Finally…through some conglomeration of social media, more women around, finally it is being taken seriously, and not a wink, wink, nod, nod,” said Davia Temin.
“I think that you can probably assume from the quickness with which Matt Lauer was fired that there was some real proof there. We don’t know what they saw. They’re not sharing everything. It’s not total transparency. Nor should it be. But there’s probably an awful lot of proof there. So, what I would say to you is, it’s not time yet. It’s not time for the pushback when we’re still just starting to hear what the real problem is.”
“All I can say is, it’s about time that they start looking the right way now. Let’s not castigate them for that yet.” […read more]