Investors are not good predictors of reputation value loss as seen in this graph comparing the equity performance of three companies with reputational crises. When normalized against respective peers, the over or under-reaction in the first few weeks is striking. At day 71, Crowdstrike, Boeing, and Southwest were, respectively, -20.8%, -28.1%, and -23% relative to the performance of the Nasdaq Cyber Index, FTSE|US Aerospace Index, and the Dow Jones US Airlines Index.
Boeing employees are striking for…more input into product safety. This labor action is a manifestation of lost reputation value. This labor action is a stark reminder that angry, disappointed employees are one of many expressions of a reputation crisis. Corporate leadership and governors must be mindful that that the long tail of reputation risk typically includes costly investor, regulator, and yes, employee actions.
At the end of reputation risks’ long tail are board-level consequences, exemplified by the denouement of this infamous winter 2022 crisis precipitated by software quality issues, unaddressed. “Southwest Airlines on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its board of directors, including the planned departure of its executive chairman, Gary Kelly, after a meeting with a hedge fund that has called for sweeping changes at the company.” The takeaway: reputation risk management is always a vital governance issue.
5-Minute Adventures in Risk & Resilience: The Podcast Reputation Insurance Forestalls ESG Risk at a $20bn Commercial Services Company: Protecting ESG Value Before Someone Else Challenges It.: In this episode, After Anheuser Busch’s incident with Bud Light, a risk executive realizes that his reputation risk insurance strategy also works for ESG risk. Click on the …
Investors are not good at predicting the net impact of reputation risk. They tend to over or underestimate the net impact on future cash flows on the basis of sentiment and noise rather than on indicators of stakeholder disaffection and behavioral change such as those integral to Steel City Re’s premier reputation risk prediction tool, its Resilience Monitor.
Qantas Airways Ltd. docked A$9.3 million ($6.1 million) from former Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce’s final payout and announced a governance overhaul after a review partly blamed board and management errors for the carrier’s reputational crisis. This punitive action conforms to heightened expectations this year by both institutional investors and proxy advisers that companies should be clawing back CEO compensation for both reputational damage and for failures in risk management, even if financials do not have to be restated. This should help focus board attention to the factors that increase, protect, and restore reputation value including reputation risk intelligence, risk management, and reputation value insurance (aka, Side R).
5-Minute Adventures in Risk & Resilience: The Podcast A Reputation for Truth Neutralizes Fake News at a $7bn Media Company: Getting Valued For Good Information That Neutralizes Bad Information.: In this episode, as a matter of national security after the fake tweet at Eli Lilly, a risk executive outlines a sophisticated strategy to make his …
Boeing Company reputation crisis day 183. Equity is down 41.7% to peers. Implications for manufacturers are illustrated in Steel City Re’s 16 April podcast: https://shorturl.at/kEfVL
And now, the last bits of the tail of a reputation crisis. “Hedge fund Elliott Investment Management announced yesterday that it has a $1.9bn position in Southwest Airlines, comprising 11% of the company’s shares. It issued a letter to the airline’s board, calling for new directors, a new CEO, more executives from outside, and a comprehensive business review. In its letter, Elliott wrote, ‘While Southwest has a proud history, that history is not an argument for supporting poor leadership and sticking with a strategy that no longer succeeds in the modern airline industry.’” Relevant podcast on what this means for your company: https://5-minute-aventures-in-risk-resilience.zencast.website
How to protect a firm from the humiliation of corporate swatting by fabulist whistleblowers using the Department of Justice.