Sharks in the Water, You're Not Fast Enough

 "[Janet] Yellen was also out of step with the White House when it came to deciding what kind of penalties to impose on Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine in February." - Bloomberg, June 15, 2022

The Yellen Brand is badly damaged. Since she is 75 years old her legacy is likely permanently in tatters.

Even the best reputation-restoration experts probably will be unable to turn that around. Actually if they try the effort could be comical. This is a media era and we all know how that public relations stuff is put together. The campaign has to be done brilliantly and even then it can become the source of jokes. Look at Bill Gates all over the place in the news. There he is on pandemics. There he is on the economy. There he is on crypto. Smirk.

We have already seen that Yellen's mea culpa about reading inflation wrong didn't move the dial. And now Bloomberg has provided a detailed inventory of her missteps. Other media outlets will run with that. Remember how the once-gush media centers about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes turned on her. That was immediately after The Wall Street Journal broke the story of the supposed breakthrough technology which didn't work. The details were there and they ran with those.

I have a theory (actually I have many theories about many things). Mine about Yellen is this: She has become trapped in what I call "Cascading Consequences." 

Not enough of an astute player for these unforgiving times she couldn't make her way back from her initial blunders. Then what had been unleashed could have been two intersecting forces:

  • Smell of blood in the water
  • Inability to do course correction quickly and effectively.

That pattern is common. Leon Black certainly seems stuck in Cascading Consequences. Those same intersecting forces took him over. And, of course, also trapped seem to be Amber Heard and Sheryl Sandberg. 

Of course, the same dynamics can attach to institutions. Will Disney be able to pull out of its troubles? 

That also happens on the legal front. That's how trial lawyers develop their brandnames - that is, if they can turn around the situation and provide a fresh start for the defendants. Some of us recall what Paul Weiss then-partner Brad Karp accomplished for Citigroup. He outfoxed the forces of Cascading Consequences. SuperLawyers captured that story. Karp became the law firm's chairperson. 

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Conjure up magical results in your communications.

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