Admin - Mahony Partners

Feb

2015

Stuart Gulliver’s Odd Explanations

Reeling from press reports about his personal financial maneuvers, HSBC chief Stuart Gulliver offered a few plain words of explanation. He may have revealed more than he intended. His remarks show the bank is even more deeply flawed than the headlines suggest. Read More

Jan

2015

Risk Communications and the State of the Union Address

Elections, Media, Taking & Managing Risk

Say “risk communications,” and people usually think of crisis management: what to say when bad things happen. That’s one part of it. But there’s another side to risk communications that involves taking risk with intelligence and purpose. President Obama’s State of the Union address offers a great example. Read More

Jan

2015

Imagining What Condi Rice Might Have Said to The New York Times

Crisis, Taking & Managing Risk

In 2003 Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser to President Bush, met with editors of The New York Times in an effort to dissuade them from printing an article she feared would damage US interests. Strong-arming the press was o... Read More

Jan

2015

What Jeb Bush Learned from Mitt Romney

Crisis, Elections

A good leader learns from mistakes, especially those of his rivals. Jeb Bush is said to be preparing to release a decade of tax returns, intent on avoiding the mistake that helped sink Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. (mor... Read More

Jan

2015

Verizon’s Curious Acquisition Denial

Taking & Managing Risk

Dealing with an M&A rumor is tricky terrain for a CEO. When you’ve got to do it in the middle of a big industry event, well, that’s a high-wire act for sure. Just ask Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who arrived at a Citibank investment conference a day after a Bloomberg news report said he was in talks to buy AOL. But his denial just might keep the rumors alive. Read More

Dec

2014

Phil Jackson, Call Your Office

Taking & Managing Risk

The New York Knickerbocker basketball club is now a woeful 4-16, the worst start in its storied history. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. With the hiring of Phil Jackson as president, the Knicks were supposed to be on their way back to the playoffs, not struggling to avoid embarrassment. The lesson for suffering Knicks fans is one learned by many struggling companies: A transformative leader ... Read More

Nov

2014

Jefferies: Good Memo, Bad Strategy

Crisis, Financial Services, Media, Taking & Managing Risk

What’s a company to do when one of its top employees is accused of wild partying, excessive drug use and having sex with a client’s girlfriend? If you’re Jefferies, the investment bank, you fire back with a bold memo from the CEO. It was a good memo but a bad strategy. Read More

Sep

2014

Damage-Control Monday for Apple and Pimco

Crisis, Financial Services, Taking & Managing Risk

Reading a Monday newspaper is so entertaining. You can catch up on the sports results, and you can see which companies spent the weekend trying to shape news coverage for the week ahead. It looks like officials at Apple and Pimco had a very busy weekend. Read More

Sep

2014

A Brave Banking Ad from Barclays

Advertising, Financial Services, Taking & Managing Risk

A reader of the Financial Times this week might have felt momentarily transported back to the heady days before the financial crisis. For on its pages was a full-page ad in vivid color listing recent transactions completed by the busy bankers at Barclays. Such chest-thumping displays are rare among investment banks these days. Why would Barclays do it, and why no... Read More

Aug

2014

No Apology Needed at NBC News

Media, Taking & Managing Risk

It seems NBC is producing as much drama in its executive suite as it is on the TV screen. Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News, told some hard truths in a New York Times interview, which caused a few senior executives to choke on their morning lattes. Ms... Read More