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.
Managing Crisis in an Era of Disruption
Business for America, November 16, 2017
As a crisis strategist, Davia Temin deals with the thorniest issues of the day, from global politics and instability, to corporate board and C-suite priorities and intrigue, to the crises faced by our nation’s top colleges and universities. She often shares her insights as a Forbes.com columnist on “Reputation Matters.” On the call with Business for America (formerly DisruptDC), she discussed all these topics and answered questions about how to lead with integrity and efficacy through whatever crisis comes your way. […read more]
Halperin Scandal Adds to List of Harassment Concerns
Richard Quest, Quest Means Business, CNN Money, October 26, 2017
Five women have come forward with harassment claims against the journalist, Mark Halperin, relating to his time at ABC news. Halperin says he’s now stepping back from his role at MSNBC and NBC news. And while he denies some of the allegations, he does say he’s deeply sorry.
What is a company supposed to do when there are people like President H. W. Bush, who believed it was OK to pat a woman’s posterior. You’ve got Halperin, who asked people out on dates and then tried to kiss them, allegedly. Where are we going with this?
“Well, I think from time immemorial, we’re going to something that has been almost always true. And we’ re reaching a tipping point right now where it’s no longer acceptable. People are starting to talk about it more. Women are telling their stories more. And it starts with one person’ s personal narrative.”
But the company itself…what is the company supposed to do?
“First of all, they’ve already got the stuff on the books. They’ve got their regulations on the books. They haven’t ever enforced them in the way that most women would like to see it. So, what can companies, if the companies are getting serious about this, because of social media, because of 24-hour news shows, what now they need to do are carrots, sticks, and nudges. This is to change behavior. Carrots, sticks, nudges.” […read more]
To watch the interview, CLICK HERE.
Johnson Makes Rare Speech as Fidelity Deals With Harassment
Charles Stein, Laura Colby and Miles Weiss, Bloomberg, October 24, 2017
Fidelity Investments’ Abigail Johnson took center stage on Tuesday and counseled money managers gathering in Washington about charting their future in the digital world. But the chief executive, a featured speaker at one of the industry’s biggest conferences, is also struggling with a stubborn legacy of the past: the treatment of women in the world of finance.
Over the last two months, Fidelity, one of the largest investment companies, has dismissed two portfolio managers — one over allegations of inappropriate sexual comments and another over claims of sexually harassing a female junior employee.
Fidelity and other money managers may face a flood of complaints “now that the lid is off,” said Davia Temin, president and CEO of Temin & Co., a New York based crisis-management company.
Going forward, Johnson has to continue to “set the tone” that the organization will take every case that comes to light seriously and emphasize there’s also a business case for doing so, said Temin. While Fidelity is a closely held company without public shareholders, its customer base cares about these issues, she said. Some public pension funds already demand that women be included on teams that manage their money. […read more]
How Boards Should Handle a CEO Scandal
Chief Executive, October 24, 2017
It used to be that a founding CEO could be excused all manner of misbehavior by his or her board, as long as it was kept quiet and the bottom line was not negatively impacted. In my 20 years as founder and CEO of a boutique crisis management firm, I have dealt with well over 60 cases of CEO dismissal, and an equal number of case where the CEO did not get dismissed. It used to be that the board might either tolerate bad behavior, or publicly support a CEO while privately chastising him relentlessly. Regardless, he or she would stay.
More recently, however, given the outsized attention to serious CEO misbehavior, boards really have little choice—they must react, and act, quickly and decisively. In the brave new world of 24-hour news cycles and social media commentary that transits the globe at the speed of light, no CEO is invulnerable or—once found to be guilty of ethical violations—irreplaceable.
Boards need to keep ahead of the public humiliation and loss of reputational equity caused by major CEO misbehavior or malfeasance. If they deny, or stall, they run the risk of ruining their company and turning themselves into the targets of shareholders’ and the public’s bloodlust. […read more]
Faber, Weinstein Put Boards on Notice: You’re the Adults Now
Jeff Green and Jordyn Holman, Bloomberg, October 17, 2017
Corporate directors should now be on notice: bad behavior isn’t so easily swept under the rug. As a parade of executives has been outed as sexist, racist or both, boards have been called on to set — and enforce — standards of decent behavior.
On Tuesday, veteran investor and ubiquitous pundit Marc Faber agreed to leave the boards of three companies after he published racist commentary in his subscription newsletter. The week before, five Weinstein Co. directors quit in the wake of revelations about Harvey Weinstein and his history of alleged sexual assault and harassment made public by the New York Times and the New Yorker.
At this point, “CEOs and boards have to be the adults in the room,” said Davia Temin, head of the New York-based crisis-management firm Temin & Co. “Boards’ voices are getting strengthened, to some degree, because of the need of a counterpoint.” […read more]
How to Handle a PR Crisis a Lot Better Than Equifax
Leigh Anderson, Lifehacker, September 21, 2017
The Equifax data breach, in which 143 million accounts were compromised and which might have years-long consequences for consumers, was historic in its scope and potential for damage. But it’s also notable for how extraordinarily badly the company, at least from a public-relations standpoint, handled the fallout.
“It was a model of the worst case imaginable,” says Davia Temin, president and CEO of Temin and Company, a crisis and reputation-management firm. If you’re running a business, crises are inevitable.
It’s how you handle them that will determine whether you’ll move on relatively unscathed—or whether you’ll lose customers or even be forced out of business entirely. In this article, the author spoke to a couple of experts in the field about how they would have handled the Equifax breach better. […read more]
Crisis of the Week: Equifax Hit With Massive Reputation Breach
Ben DiPietro, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, September 19, 2017
The hack of personal information of around 143 million people has put credit-monitoring service Equifax Inc. in the crisis bullseye. Hackers swiped Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers, leaving consumers trying to figure out their next moves—and unhappy with how Equifax was handling the situation. The breach is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission and several states.
Equifax issued a statement on Sept. 7 notifying the public about the breach—weeks after it said it first learned of the incursion. It issued ‘updates’ on Sept. 8, Sept. 11, Sept. 13, Sept. 14 and Sept. 15, the last one announcing the retirements of its chief information officer and chief security officer. Bloomberg reported three executives sold stock days after the company learned of the breach but NPR reported Equifax said in a statement not posted on its website the executives “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares.” The company’s chief executive, Robert F. Smith, said the incident is “the most humbling moment in our 118-year history” and promised changes.
The experts evaluate how well Equifax has handled its crisis communications.
Davia Temin, chief executive, Temin and Co.: “Just terrible. Equifax’s public response to its breach affecting 143 million Americans remains one of the worst yet, serving only to exacerbate the crisis–and the company took over a month to plan it. It made pretty much every crisis communications gaffe in the book, systematically destroying public trust with every move.
“Equifax completely and purposefully understated the problem. ‘This is clearly a disappointing event for our company…’ the CEO said. Disappointed? Really? What about devastated? What about disconsolate? What about abjectly sorry? Second, it included its marketing brand message in its announcement: ‘We pride ourselves on being a leader in managing and protecting data.’ This set up an internal comparison between what it promises in its marketing and what just happened. ‘Proud?’ It should be ashamed. This simply served to magnify its fail–and the company’s complete cluelessness as to what it was about to unleash.
“The utter stupidity of Equifax appearing to pull a fast one on the American public by tying its acceptance of an offer for a year of free credit monitoring to the waiving of one’s right to a trial and mandating the use of arbitration is stunning. Only after a huge public outcry and the involvement of New York’s and other state’s attorneys general getting involved did it amend the offer to include a ‘write-us-within-30-days-to-opt-out’ clause. No matter what its ‘clarification’ noted, it was far too little, too late. What could have been a one-day killer of an announcement…has turned into a category 5 debacle for Equifax.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Crisis of the Week: Equifax Hit With Massive Reputation Breach
Ben DiPietro, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, September 19, 2017
The hack of personal information of around 143 million people has put credit-monitoring service Equifax Inc. in the crisis bullseye. Hackers swiped Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers, leaving consumers trying to figure out their next moves—and unhappy with how Equifax was handling the situation.
Equifax issued a statement on Sept. 7 notifying the public about the breach—weeks after it said it first learned of the incursion. It issued ‘updates’ on Sept. 8, Sept. 11, Sept. 13, Sept. 14 and Sept. 15, the last one announcing the retirements of its chief information officer and chief security officer. Bloomberg reported three executives sold stock days after the company learned of the breach but NPR reported Equifax said in a statement not posted on its website the executives “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares.” The company’s chief executive, Robert F. Smith, said the incident is “the most humbling moment in our 118-year history” and promised changes.
The experts evaluate how well Equifax has handled its crisis communications.
“Equifax’s public response to its breach affecting 143 million Americans remains one of the worst yet, serving only to exacerbate the crisis–and the company took over a month to plan it,” said Davia Temin. “It made pretty much every crisis communications gaffe in the book, systematically destroying public trust with every move.” […read more]
Equifax: A Category 5 Cybersecurity Crisis Storm. Chances Are It Will Hit You
Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, September 9, 2017
You would really think that by now companies in crisis could get it right the first time.
But no, as Equifax announced its epic Category 5 Crisis — the cyberhack of 143 million consumers’ social security numbers, drivers’ license numbers, birthdates, addresses and credit card numbers affecting at least 44% of the American population — after stalling over a month to stop the hack and prepare for the onslaught of a public announcement, clearly got the apology algorithm all wrong anyway. Did they think no one would notice?
From a tepid apology from CEO Richard Smith — totally incommensurate with the size of the crisis — to a completely botched announcement of remediation, tying use of their free credit monitoring to forfeiting the right of a trial and mandating arbitration, they just got everything wrong.
Whenever you come out of the gate wrong in a crisis — either minimizing the problem, putting forth a totally tone-deaf message, trying to pull a fast one on your consumers by limiting your liability, or retaining some of your breezy marketing messages in the face of category 5 devastation — you court the fury of your customers, the public, regulators and investors.
Here’s what Equifax has done wrong — so far. […read more]
These Are The 4 Emotional-Intelligence Job Skills You’ll Need In The Future
Lydia Dishman, Fast Company, August 30, 2017
All the data suggesting that coding is rapidly becoming an essential skill for any job–not just one in tech–only tells one side of the story. The other side indicates that soft skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, attention to detail, and writing proficiency top the list of what hiring managers find missing from job seekers’ personal tool kits. But according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, one of the job skills that will make a candidate competitive in the job market of the future is emotional intelligence. […read more]