What To Do if There’s a Harvey Weinstein in Your Ranks

From Insurance Business Magazine, with quotes from Thom Fladung, (now) managing partner of Hennes Communications:

First there was Harvey Weinstein. We were horrified, but we’d seen things play out like this occasionally before, like with Bill Cosby or Clarence Thomas.

But then there was Kevin Spacey. And Jeffrey Tambor, Louis CK, US Senator Al Franken, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor, Aziz Ansari…

By any measure, the conversation that started in October of 2017 is far from over. It’s not even at its peak. Al Franken lost his job. HBO cancelled Louis CK’s shows, and Amazon Studios is going to have to find a replacement for its biggest star. #MeToo has held so many to account for their actions past and present that risk managers in any industry are right to be worried.

“I really don’t believe in hyperbole,” says Thomas Fladung, vice president of Hennes Communications, “but there’s something going on here with this subject. Clearly, we’re going through a cultural shift, and this is enduring. This is not some fad or trend.”

Sexual harassment is no longer a reputational concern just for large, high-profile organisations. Fladung’s firm does business all around the world, but he reports that these days, small organisations with reaches no further than the state of Ohio (where his company is based) are concerned about their preparedness. “People are feeling it at every level,” says Fladung. “I’m certainly seeing it on a local level. I’ve talked to other people outside of my firm about this to see if they’re feeling it, too, and it shows no signs of slowing down.”

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