Congressional hearings of CEOs under fire make for great television, but that’s pretty much all they are good for. My favorite inquisitor is California’s Katie Porter, whose takedown of Equifax CEO Mark Begor was such a delight I’ve watched it multiple times. Begor is still Equifax’s CEO. This week it…
Even before I learned about Ken Fisher’s crudeness and disregard for the lessons of the #MeToo movement, I’d have nothing to do with his eponymous firm. For seemingly forever, Fisher Investments has been junking up my mailbox with slick flyers touting the founder’s investment prowess. When it comes to money…
I’m often accused of being too black and white in my thinking. My skepticism about ESG, a popular form of socially responsible investing, is a case in point. I applaud those who wish to apply moral considerations when investing in public entities, but companies comprising the biggest holdings of Vanguard’s…
Accountants are the Rodney “I don’t get no respect” Dangerfield of the professional services industry. I know this because my father was the senior partner of a Toronto accounting firm and I learned about the abuse he took despite his unrivaled knowledge of Canada’s tax code. A former senior partner…
When I migrated from journalism to PR decades ago, I was appalled at services major firms were promising but I knew couldn’t deliver. I shared my dismay with my father, a brilliant businessman who I always turned to for counsel and advice. He was neither sympathetic nor supportive. “Bullshit sells,”…
I’m bad at math, much to the chagrin of my father, an award-winning accountant who rarely used a calculator or slide rule because he could process numbers faster in his head. I long blamed my algebraic impairment for my inability to analyze a balance sheet, but GE CEO Larry Culp…
Silicon Valley’s tech denizens fancy themselves as above reproach liberal do-gooders, disrupting antiquated business models and government regulations for the betterment of genderfluidkind, a term I imagine they’d prefer to “mankind.” Donald Trump is among the greatest things to happen to the Valley since the creation of the microchip because…
Fortune magazine four years ago published what easily ranks among the best investigative features of all time, an in-depth examination of the devastating cyberattack launched against Sony Pictures. The attack erased everything stored on about half of Sony’s personal computers and servers. A deleting algorithm overwrote the data seven different…
I confess my wariness of the political media distracted me from the “character” of Donald Trump. Count me among the two-thirds of Americans who perceive journalists as promoting their personal agendas rather than objectively reporting the news. The more the media tarred Trump a racist, a fascist, or whatever ist…
Millennials and Gen Z fashion themselves as being driven by their morals when purchasing goods and services. According to a survey by Deloitte, many “will not hesitate to lessen or end a relationship when they disagree with a company’s business practices, values, or political leanings.” Understandably, corporate America is falling…
I’m a journalist and television pilot writer. I previously was president of a New York City-based PR and crisis communications firm. Earlier, I was a business reporter with major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. I also worked as an advertising copywriter. Born and raised in Toronto, I’ve lived in London (the one famous for snowsqualls), Montreal, Boston, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, and Marin County. I post regularly on LinkedIn and can be reached at: