As a recreational runner, I’ve had a lifelong fear of red-winged blackbirds. I’ve been divebombed numerous times seemingly out of the blue when a protectant mama bird sees me approaching. Screaming, gesturing wildly and throwing rocks in my defense as I stumble away traumatized, I wonder “what did I do to deserve this?” If you, your product or your [...]
Author’s note: As local and national officials struggled to respond to the recent Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio and its effects, it reminded us of another public official, Teddy Roosevelt, who faced and effectively averted a different public crisis. We are revisiting this blog which is among the most popular we’ve published. Best-selling author and historian Doris Kearns [...]
We see you, asset management marketers who dropped everything this week to communicate about the Silicon Valley Bank crisis and fallout. And we celebrate you. Hope you hear the same from the Sales and call center/customer service representative teams you armed with on-the-spot analysis. Communicating as things are happening—even when the situation isn’t fully sized and even when specific [...]
Deciding whether to post commentary during a severe and fast-moving crisis, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, can be a conundrum. Asset managers may be reluctant to make macro calls. Wealth managers may have qualms about commenting on changes to portfolio composition. For both, hesitations boil down to these three reasons: You don’t want to be wrong. You don’t want [...]
Theodore Roosevelt Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, draws leadership lessons from her presidential subjects. Best known for the bestseller Team of Rivals focused on Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet and her Pulitzer-prize winning No Ordinary Time about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the war years, Kearns Goodwin has spent her life studying these and other [...]
Oh shoot (or more likely an expletive). Nothing worse than getting an unexpected google alert with your company name connected to unflattering news. It is frustrating to be the subject of negative media coverage. When your company is named in a lawsuit or regulatory matter, or a key executive leaves to join a competitor, the news media loves to tell these stories as much as we’d prefer to avoid them. And even after the dust settles, it [...]
This spring our inboxes were flooded with sympathetic messages and thoughts on the reckoning America is experiencing on racial inequity and justice, largely spurred by the death of George Floyd and the numerous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While some companies released public statements, others sent internal messages to employees. Still other companies didn’t chime in at all. Many [...]
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s new book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, draws leadership lessons from her presidential subjects. Best known for the bestseller Team of Rivals focused on Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet and her Pulitzer-prize winning No Ordinary Time about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the war years, Kearns Goodwin has spent her life studying these and other leaders. Buried in [...]
