![A CEO and former Los Angeles County deputy coroner on what he feels derailed the ESG movement […] ESG died from toxicity and dysfunctionality. Culpable parties include investors, fund managers, corporate communicators and politicians.](https://steelcityre.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/20231006a-Steel-City-Re.jpg)
A CEO and former Los Angeles County deputy coroner on what he feels derailed the ESG movement […] ESG died from toxicity and dysfunctionality. Culpable parties include investors, fund managers, corporate communicators and politicians.
![In a world of polycrisis, […] risk managers need to… market the elevated quality of their risk management processes.](https://steelcityre.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/20230926-Steel-City-Re.jpg)
In a world of polycrisis, […] risk managers need to… market the elevated quality of their risk management processes. The author thanks for their contributions to this article:
Courtney Davis Curtis, University of Chicago; Deyna Feng, Cummins, Inc.; Mary C. Friedl, Redbox; Kathleen A. Graham, The HQ Companies; Chris Hammond, Stepan; Enya He, Blu Clarity PBC; Carnell R. Jones, Trinitas Ventures; Christy Kaufman, Zillow Group; John C. Kline, Discover Financial Services; Manuel Padilla, MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated; Soubhagya Parija, FirstEnergy and New York Power Authority; Kristen Peed, CBIZ; Theresa Severson, Kite Realty Group; Seung Yoo, Regal Rexnord Corporation; and Denise Williamee, Steel City Re.
ESG risk is one of a growing number of stakeholder-centric issues falling under the greater rubric of reputation risk. High-profile, costly risk management failures at AB InBev (Bud Light), Southwest Airlines and Silicon Valley Bank indicate that it is time for risk management to be more fully integrated into corporate processes, like marketing: #letriskmanagersmanagerisk! Reputation risk management needs to be a standard area of enterprise risk management responsibility. Can we drink to that?
Data-driven independent intelligence. Among the lessons we should learn about reputation risk from Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Credit Suisse and others is that directors need better, more objective information about what stakeholders expect: the source of reputation value.
Lead enterprise-wide strategy. Risk management is surely broken. Ambitious risk managers committed to upgrading risk strategy and creating enterprise value with better enterprise intelligence, strategic packaging and a unified organization can fix it.
Panic and stock share dump. Thriving in a tornado corridor or flood plain demands fortitude and a reliable risk strategy. The same goes for investing in equity markets. In times of panic — think Southwest Airlines, Norfolk Southern and Silicon Valley Bank — investor moxie may give way to stock share dumps. […] Integrated processes, timely intelligence and good risk communications will help investors appreciate and value risk strategies and not panic.
The U.S. Department of Labor has now launched an investigation and said it will hold not only companies that employ child labor accountable, but the larger, better known companies that have child labor in their supply chains. The new regulatory stakeholders in companies’ supply chains bring with them investors and litigators, who had material financial consequences to activities already being followed by activists.
ESG rhetoric pledge regrets. With ESG becoming as important to some companies as EBITDA and marketing departments ramping up the ESG rhetoric, the effective scope of dutiful oversight has expanded…The Delaware court increasingly sees oversight of all things mission-critical as a board duty.
Mission critical risk denial can be costly. A holiday flight cancellation fiasco by Southwest Airlines crushed the company’s market capitalization and caused the company to take an $800 million dollar write-down for Q4 and record losses three times greater than analysts had expected. Equity returns 42 days into the crisis show Southwest trailing the Dow Jones U.S. Airlines Index by 18.4%. Had it merely kept pace with that index, Southwest’s market cap would have been more than $3.3 billion higher.
Risk Strategy Authentication and Communication.If you oversee an effective reputation risk strategy process, but no one knows it, is it actually effective? This is a vital question boards of directors, senior executives, and risk professionals need to ask themselves in this era of enhanced regulatory enforcement. Building resilience requires a demonstrably effective, insurance-authenticated system.