In the News

In the News

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

Podcasts »

America’s Leadership Crisis: Davia Temin — How Do We Fix It? podcast with host Richard Davies
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Companies: Crisis and Common Ground — Let's Find Common Ground podcast with hosts Richard Davies and Ashley Milne-Tyte.
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Communicating with Authority and Compassion in Crisis or Opportunity — Voice America’s Out of the Comfort Zone with host Wanda Wallace.
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Leading Through Crisis & Chaos — Know the Rules of the Game^® Podcast with host Desiree Patno & Special Guest Davia Temin.
To listen, Click Here.

Temps at the Top — Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal.
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You Can Eradicate Sexual Harassment in Your Organization — Monday Morning Radio.
To listen, Click Here.

Leading in a ‘Me Too’ Era
In the era of #MeToo, leaders need to know what to do to prevent the problem in the first place.
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...more »

Temin and Company is often quoted in print, broadcast and social media on topical issues as well as industry trends.

Following is a list of links to those articles, beginning with the most recent.

Crisis of the Week: Hacked Twitter Account Gives McDonald’s Indigestion

Ben DiPietro, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, March 27, 2017

The crisis magnifying lens puts it focus on McDonald’s Corp. after a message was sent on the company’s Twitter account calling President Donald Trump “a disgusting excuse of a President” and trolling him by saying he has “tiny hands.” The White House did not comment, but some supporters of the president called for a boycott of the burger chain.

McDonald’s said it was notified by Twitter that its account was hacked. McDonald’s deleted the tweet, secured its account and said an internal investigation found the account had been hacked by “an external source.” The company put out a statement apologizing that “this tweet was sent through our corporate McDonald’s account.”

The experts evaluate how well McDonald’s handled this crisis.

“The fake tweet sent from McDonalds’ Twitter account on March 16 that disparaged President Donald Trump catapulted the company into the land of alt-tweetdom,” said Davia Temin. “Today, as companies and individuals alike struggle to delineate truth from fiction in public discourse, McDonalds had an immediate imperative to let the public know it had not officially sent the insulting tweet. It had to act quickly to set the record straight, before it even knew what really had happened. It couldn’t let a lie stand. It did an excellent job.” […read more]

Rex Tillerson Isn’t the Only CEO With an Extra Email Address

Vanessa Fuhrmans and Joann Lublin, The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2017

The news that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used an email alias while he was chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. surprised much of the business world—if only for his moniker’s creativity.

Many executives have an alternate company email address, or even two or three, business leaders and executive coaches say. But it is rare that those aliases take on an entirely different identity.

There is a distinction between using an alternate email address and adopting an alter ego, said Davia Temin, chief executive of reputation- and crisis-management firm Temin & Co., who says such an alias is often an attempt to maintain privacy “in such a porous world.” She advises against the urge. Even if messages from the alternate address circulate solely among company executives, “it looks as if it is meant to hide” something, she said.

More common, Ms. Temin says, is for executives to set up a social-media alias to join a Twitter conversation or other debate without disclosing their identities. […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]

Davia Temin, Crisis and Reputational Risk Expert, Honored with the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from Trust Across America

T&C Press Release, Yahoo! Finance, January 30, 2017

Crisis and reputational risk strategist and leadership coach Davia Temin has been honored by Trust Across America-Trust Around the World with its 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognizes leadership in advancing organizational trust on a global level; Temin has been named one of the group’s “Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business” for five consecutive years. […read more]

Tackling Disruption and Convergence in 2017

Tony Chapelle, Agenda, January 9, 2017

The Center for Board Matters at accounting and management consulting firm EY has identified six main priorities that corporate boards are likely to focus upon in 2017. However, one of those topics, dealing with disruption and convergence, is perhaps the most vexing of problems boards will deal with this year, so Agenda has called on a group of experts to address this challenge. We asked one director and a handful of corporate governance experts to distill and offer advice on how boards can help their managers develop and implement competitive and effective strategies while the world bombards them with disruption and convergence.

Davia Temin, CEO of strategy and communications consulting firm Temin and Company, says boards need to pay attention to the evolution of convergence.

For example, almost all corporations have had departments or silos that traditionally focused on cyber security and risk management. They’ve also had traditional marketing departments. But now, the ability of a law firm or an online retailer to send and receive information securely has itself become a marketing issue. If clients don’t have assurances that a company has certifications or other indications of top-notch Internet protection, they may not use a company’s services or products.

More broadly, Temin says, with mainstream news and social media converging, it’s going to be important for boards to ensure that regular news is clearly differentiated from simple opinion.

In order for directors to get out in front of disruption scenarios, she says, “the board really needs to assure that the company strategy factors in all possible disruptions that they know of right now when it comes to products, to the business environment, to the business model and to consumer audiences.” […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.

Four Years of Living Dangerously: CEOs Brace for the Trump Era

Matt Townsend, Bloomberg Technology, December 19, 2016

As president-elect, Donald Trump is pro-business and a champion of corporate tax cuts. And anti-free trade and a big-company bully.

That’s a disorienting mix for chief executive officers trying to suss out whether Trump in the White House will be a blessing or bad luck. Planning ahead’s no easy task when the next commander in chief is a guy with a hair-trigger Twitter finger who touts policies that could both help and hurt U.S. companies.

“It will be a fascinating experience to see how things that have worked inside global organizations translate to the political arena,” said Davia Temin, founder of the crisis-management company Temin & Co.

For all that, the victim of a Twitter pounce must be careful, she said. “Never start a press war with someone who can outgun you.” […read more]

Podcasts »

Leading Through Crisis & Chaos
Know the Rules of the Game^® Podcast: with host Desiree Patno & Special Guest Davia Temin.
To listen, Click Here.

Temps at the Top — Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
To listen, Click Here.

You Can Eradicate Sexual Harassment in Your Organization — Monday Morning Radio
To listen, Click Here.

...more »