While uncertainty hung heavy in the air, our small team was unusually open with each other. We talked candidly about the challenges, the personal toll, and what it might all mean for the business. Without setting out to do so, we had built a foundation of psychological safety-one that made navigating a global crisis far less stressful than it might have been otherwise.
Another round of Epstein files-approximately three million documents-was released January 30, and this batch included a lot of prominent names. That list included philanthropist and business magnate Bill Gates, entrepreneur Elon Musk, and author, doctor and longevity influencer Peter Attia. They were all allegedly connected to Epstein in different ways, and as a result, their mentions in the documents are varied. But it's their responses that offer lessons to others in the business world about how to respond when faced with a crisis.
Just as families across the U.S. were heading into Thanksgiving weekend and stocking up on Campbell's staples, a leaked audio recording landed online of a company vice president mocking Indian workers, calling customers "poor people," and claiming its soups contained "bioengineered" or "3D" meat. The timing was combustible. A brand associated with holiday comfort was suddenly overshadowed by a senior leader's contemptuous voice, directed at the very people who buy and make its products.
Traditional crisis management functions on probability rather than certainty. Clients pay substantial retainers for months of work that may or may not yield results. This model creates what behavioral economists call "outcome uncertainty anxiety," where businesses facing crises cannot predict when or if their reputation will recover. The psychological toll often compounds the original situation, creating a secondary disaster that can prove more damaging than the initial incident.
Crises rarely start with a press release or a breaking news segment. More often, they emerge quietly on social media-an offhand comment from a customer, a trending hashtag, a viral video-before quickly snowballing into something far bigger. For marketing leaders, the lesson is clear: Reputation can take years to build and seconds to erode. Yet too many crisis management playbooks still rely on slow, traditional escalation paths that leave brands reacting far too late.
Take a client of mine, "Simon," a capable and newly promoted executive in a consulting firm, who reached out to his leaders for support when a market downturn hit the firm. He'd been promised coaching, but the company withdrew funding for it just as his challenges multiplied: He needed an updated sales strategy and had inherited a demotivated team who faced the risk of redundancy and was left to navigate the tumult all on his own-at precisely the moment the stakes became highest.
Kenvue, the company behind the household brand, at least has a playbook to turn to for guidance. That's because Tylenol's original owner, Johnson & Johnson, developed it decades ago after seven people in the Chicago area died from taking its capsules because someone had laced them with potassium cyanide. The 1982 unsolved mystery became known as the " Tylenol murders." J&J's handling of the incident not only saved the brand - and protected consumers from future tragedy - but also set the gold standard for crisis management that is still taught in business schools.
I started my career in law enforcement, working for many years (17) as a police officer. That experience grounded me in investigative work, crisis response, and people leadership under pressure. I later worked in high-risk international environments like Afghanistan and Libya, advising and managing complex security operations - experiences that deeply shaped my resilience and strategic thinking. After transitioning to the private sector in 2015, I held leadership roles in the retail and automotive industries before joining BASF in 2022.
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is often something that many professionals do not pay close attention to. History has shown us that even industry giants can be humbled and collapse or lose significant income when they overlook critical vulnerabilities in their preparation for crises. This can range from overconfidence in their abilities and technologies used to geopolitical unawareness. If the blind spots are not managed carefully, severe crises can be escalated, which can even threaten the future of the business.
Consistent, clearly communicated values are among a company's strongest defenses in a crisis. But values can't just live in a motto. They need to show up in leadership behavior, brand voice and what the company spotlights far in advance of a crisis scenario.
Multiple suspects opened fire around 3:30 a.m. at Taste of the City Lounge, located off Franklin Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed early Sunday morning.
Chipotle's food safety crisis in 2015 demonstrated that the commitment to quality can create vulnerabilities in maintaining high-integrity supply chains at scale.
She’s reached her limit. Relying on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, she’s losing her grip and her connection to the community she loves and serves.
"Nonprofits are tax-exempt organizations that must comply with rules of financial transparency and public accountability due to their missions of public social trust."
