Good governance does not shield directors from liability risk nor reputation risk. The former is the hard lesson learned by everyone in the mid 1980’s; the latter is being learned now. The reputations of board members have increasingly become targets in a time of heightened activism and social media activity. Read the article in Directors & Boards to learn what experts say directors should do.
Facebook recognized the reputational risk associated with its users’ privacy, and the shareholders homed in on this in their lawsuit. […] “Facebook is in the business of collecting user data, and if its reputation is damaged such that users lose their trust, it has the potential to damage the company’s and its investors’ long-term interest beyond the fines and penalties already paid” […] Mission-critical risks have become intertwined with boards’ fiduciary duties … reputation can be a mission-critical risk for many companies, according to Nir Kossovsky, CEO of Steel City Re, an insurance provider for reputational risk.
Public comments made by Cleveland-Cliffs’ CEO and chair against Japan and Nippon Steel that appeared to reference the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki drew swift condemnation and underscore the precariousness of trying to win favor with the incoming administration, sources told Agenda. […] “Over the next few years, we will see a lot of strategic cultural posturing by executives like Mr. Goncalves,” Kossovsky said. “Whether they condone, condemn or ignore such comments, some dutiful and conscientious board members will paradoxically suffer personal reputational harm if aggrieved stakeholders feel betrayed.”
Investors are not good predictors of reputation value loss. At crisis day 155 for Crowdstrike, Boeing, and Southwest, the firms’ equities were -1.4%, -36.4%, and -26.8%. vs S&P500.
Boeing Company reputation crisis day 351. Equity is down 50.9% to peers; Steel City Re’s average observed losses on day 351 is 8.2%. Implications for manufacturers are illustrated in Steel City Re’s 16 April podcast: https://shorturl.at/kEfVL
![We often talk about how the essence of reputation risk is the risk of economic damage from a list of emotional disappointed stakeholders, usually wrapping up with social license holders. Here is a story of one such aggrieved group from Rockdale County, GA, which is trying to oust BioLab from its site after a devastating industrial fire. […] “We can no longer stand by and allow a corporation to continuously affect our current and future physical health, our mental health and our overall quality of life,” Rockdale County Commissioner Sherri Washington said.](https://steelcityre.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241023-social-license-holders-move-to-evict-biolab-steel-city-re.png)
We often talk about how the essence of reputation risk is the risk of economic damage from a list of emotional disappointed stakeholders, usually wrapping up with social license holders. Here is a story of one such aggrieved group from Rockdale County, GA, which is trying to oust BioLab from its site after a devastating industrial fire. […] “We can no longer stand by and allow a corporation to continuously affect our current and future physical health, our mental health and our overall quality of life,” Rockdale County Commissioner Sherri Washington said.
DOJ has updated its expectations expanding the potential for reputation risk. Under the new guidelines, prosecutors will consider whether companies have a process for identifying and managing emerging internal and external risks related to the use of new technologies, such as AI, and whether they are integrated into broader enterprise risk management practices.
Dwindling Reputation for Brand Safety at Elon Musk’s X. About one-quarter of advertisers plan to cut spending on social media site X, according to according to a new survey of marketers by Kantar.
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.
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