Thought LeadershipMiscellaneous 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]

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]

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).»

The Dalai Lama Told Me So — Words of Wisdom From the 2012 Templeton Prize Winner

Davia Temin, The Huffington Post, May 14, 2012

Davia relates the story of her meeting with the Dalai Lama, 2012 winner of the Templeton Prize. She shares five miracles from that day, and tells us that “…compassion for others and for oneself is the antidote – to despair, to stress, to cruelty, to evil. No matter what your religion, your spirituality, your point of view, that is a singular truth.” […read more]

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

How Much Is a Girl Worth? Transforming the Girl Scouts at 100

Davia Temin, The Huffington Post, March 12, 2012

Girl Scouts has decided to think big. Think transformation. Think of the opportunities $1 billion can give to our nation’s girls – in terms of after-school programming, in terms of community service activities, in terms of learning to live more healthily, and learning how to throw away “mean girl” role models and adopt the goals of supporting, befriending, teaming up with and honoring one another. These are goals worthy of a hundred-year-old institution that is seeking to be a force for positive change for the future. […read more]

Christmas in our Souls

Reputation Matters, Forbes, December 25, 2011

Christmas is for everyone.  Taken in their most universal sense, the gifts of grace, salvation through sacrifice, God’s love in the world, redemption, service, goodness, moral center, hope and joy are transcendent.

And I am thankful that, perhaps, we are approaching a time when religion is no longer used to divide us, or make one of us superior to another…rather it can be shared across cultures, belief systems, and experience to lift us all. […read more]

Girl Scouts of the USA turns 100: the original women’s leadership pipeline

Davia Temin, Directors & Boards, December 22, 2011

Today, Girl Scouts of the United States of America opens its 100th anniversary convention in Houston. 15,000 girls, adult volunteers, celebrity guests, and friends are all converging on Texas to move girls and women’s leadership into its next century.

If you’d like to see the full article, please contact us

$1 Billion Dollars for Girls

Reputation Matters, Forbes, November 15, 2011

How much is a girl worth? Soon we will be able to say, ‘it starts at a billion dollars, and goes up from there.’ Girls Scouts of the USA launched our $1 billion 100th anniversary campaign for girls, designed to help every girl in America who wants to be a Girl Scout afford to do so. […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»