Thought LeadershipCrisis Articles

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"Reputation Matters" White Papers seek to offer deeper insight on a wide range of topics we help clients address.

Corporate Conscience In The Darkest Of Days: What Can Board Directors Do About Ukraine?
It's Not over Until It's over: The Perils Of Declaring Victory In Crisis Too soon
Chaos Leadership: When Does Global Crisis Turn Into Chaos and How Do we survive It?
Chaos Rules: 8 Ways to Navigate Through the Fog of Crisis
Crisis Leadership in Real Time: 8 Pandemic Best Practices
Great Crisis Management Is Counterintuitive
Communicating in Crisis: How to Build Trust in an Untrustworthy World
Forget the Hype: What Every Business leader Needs to Know About Artificial Intelligence Now

...read more»

Your Foundation in Crisis: Will You Be Ready?

Davia Temin, Philanthropy New York, June 18, 2013

Crisis is turning into the “new normal” for most organizations and corporations in this post-recession era. And foundations are as vulnerable and prone to crisis as public companies and universities, particularly in the age of social media. In this piece for Philanthropy New York’s Smart Assets blog, Davia Temin writes about the recent “crisis case” seminar she led for foundation executives. […read more]

Boards Coming Up Short on Crisis Management

Marcy Syms and Davia Temin, Agenda, June 10, 2013

Corporate boards are facing crises of a magnitude never before seen, with even the most experienced board directors finding themselves ill-prepared for crisis. Therefore, how boards respond to such events speaks volumes about the character and culture of the organizations they lead. In this Agenda article, Davia Temin – along with co-author Marcy Syms, former CEO of Syms Corporation – outlines several steps boards can take to set the right tone for management and help mitigate risk when crisis hits.

If you’d like to read the full article, please click here (pdf).»

What Boards Must Know About Social Media

Davia Temin, The Corporate Board, May/June 2012

Someone posts a harsh item about your company on Twitter. The comment is picked up and amplified through other online venues, and the company’s stock prices take a fall—all within hours. Today’s world of social media is one where the most obscure person, company or product can overnight become a global trend, or a global villain. Is your board aware of the company’s social media strategy? For that matter, are you as a director up to speed on the new social media world?

In this age of social media, companies of all kinds find themselves at the end of the “command and control” model of leadership. Top-down communications, including those from the C-suite and the boardroom, have lost their primacy.

Today, with blogs, v-logs, Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and social media of all kinds, everyone has a voice. More to the point, anyone can move markets if his or her voice catches on with the public.

Employees have a voice—including the employee that management fired yesterday. Your “like’rs” have a voice; your dislikers have a voice too (including all of the “I hate xx company” websites, and Facebook-facilitated boycotts). Your competitors have a voice, your shareholders have a voice, and you, as board members, have a voice as well. However, amid the cacophony, it is now exponentially more difficult to make the messages you and your company wish to convey heard.

Especially for the board, knowing how to communicate in social media (and when it is or is not appropriate) is crucial. A board’s workings are historically private and confidential, and a board tends to be heard from only when announcing a new CEO or in a serious corporate crisis.

If you’d like to read the full article, please click here (pdf).»

Wall Street, Volatility, and Reputation

Davia Temin, Intangible Asset, May 4, 2012

Davia speaks about the importance of “intangible assets” such as trust and loyalty in brand building, specifically related to the financial crises and reputational crisis surrounding financial firms like Goldman Sachs.

If you’d like to listen to the broadcast, please contact us

School Shooting In Chardon, Ohio: ‘A Quaint, Lonely Town’

Reputation Matters, Forbes, February 28, 2012

I grew up only miles from Chardon, Ohio. In those days, the only thing the town was known for was maple syrup. Early every spring, just about this time of the year, my parents and I would go down to Chardon’s Maple Syrup Festival, where you could eat all the pancakes you wanted, blanketed with freshly tapped maple syrup. In between rounds you would eat pickles to clear your palate (pickles? Yes, sounds bad, but they were oddly effective.)

Today, Chardon is known for death. Needless death. And just as the maple syrup used to run freely, so now do our tears for such a monumental waste. […read more]

How to Handle a Diversity Crisis

Davia Temin, Diversity Executive, November 8, 2011

Allegations involving diversity failings can not only cost a company millions of dollars but also cause a serious reputational black eye. Here are six ‘best practices’ to help deal with a diversity crisis… […read more]

White Papers»

"Reputation Matters" White Papers seek to offer deeper insight on a wide range of topics we help clients address.

Corporate Conscience In The Darkest Of Days: What Can Board Directors Do About Ukraine?
It's Not over Until It's over: The Perils Of Declaring Victory In Crisis Too soon
Chaos Leadership: When Does Global Crisis Turn Into Chaos and How Do we survive It?
Chaos Rules: 8 Ways to Navigate Through the Fog of Crisis
Crisis Leadership in Real Time: 8 Pandemic Best Practices
Great Crisis Management Is Counterintuitive
Communicating in Crisis: How to Build Trust in an Untrustworthy World
Forget the Hype: What Every Business leader Needs to Know About Artificial Intelligence Now

...read more»