Risk Insider: Nir Kossovsky

“If By Compensation…”

By: | July 9, 2014

Nir Kossovsky is CEO of Steel City Re, which mitigates the hazards of reputation risk with parametric reputation insurances, ESG insurances, and risk management advisory services.

In 1952, Noah Sweat, Jr. a lawmaker from the then-dry state of Mississippi found himself explaining his position on whiskey to an audience of pro- and anti-prohibitionists. His speech, known today as “if by whiskey,” cheered both sides.

“If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence… I am against it.”

“But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together … I am for it.”

General Motors CEO Mary Barra faced a similar challenge developing the company’s compensation strategy for victims of its faulty ignition switches.

Customers expected GM to fully compensate victims, and capital providers expected GM to protect assets from litigation and compensation funds:  One of GM’s major stakeholders was bound to be disappointed.

Barra’s move was to leverage the reputation of Kenneth Feinberg to help restore GM’s reputation with both sides.  Kenneth Feinberg’s reputation makes the “if by whiskey” approach to GM’s compensation strategy possible.

Feinberg has been pivotal in resolving many of our nation’s most challenging and widely known compensation matters.

GM customers and victims are warmed by Feinberg’s experience directing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Working pro bono, he spent three years meeting with families and calculating claim awards. Feinberg also handled compensation issues for the Virginia Tech shooting and the Boston Marathon bombing.

Barra’s move was to leverage the reputation of Kenneth Feinberg to help restore GM’s reputation with both sides.

GM’s stakeholders breathe easier knowing that Feinberg, as administrator of BP’s $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, carefully manned the funding spigot.

Almost one year after the spill began, he had paid only 168,000 claimants out of more than 490,000 people who had filed. Feinberg explained then that 80 percent didn’t have proper documentation; the terms of the GM compensation plan similarly have strict documentation requirements.

Nor is he anti-corporatist. His firm accepted $850,000 a month from BP to administer the compensation fund, which led a New Orleans federal judge to order Feinberg to quit claiming independence from BP.

The “if by compensation” strategy is working, according to analysis published by Consensiv, the reputation controls company, based on reputation value metrics we use at Steel City Re.

The bump on the graph starts June 15th, the week Google Trends shows a steady uptake in searches for Kenneth Feinberg that accompanied an uptick in GM’s reputation metrics.

GM’s reputation premium, a measure of additional value arising from favorable stakeholder expectations, rose to the 46th percentile within its peer group, while the consensus trend, a measure of stakeholder surprise, showed an increase to 1.2 percent.

Reputation is about setting, meeting or beating expectations. Reputation restoration is about acknowledging fault, repairing the damage, and raising future standards.

Barra has been candid in exposing the faults.

Her challenge in repairing the damage was assuring customers and victims without frightening creditors and investors. By hiring Feinberg, Barra appears to have pleased both key stakeholder groups, boosting GM’s reputation.

Read all of Nir Kossovsky’s Risk Insider contributions.

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