When the Martha Stewart insider trading scandal broke, many had suspected that her company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, a lifestyle company, would go down with her. However initially it didn’t happen and even after she was sentenced to federal prison, her company was still going strongly.
Recently though, her company has suffered huge financial problems due to declining sales and rising debt and had to be sold at a much lesser valuation than what it was at the peak. But this downturn can be attributed more to the decline in the fashion industry and lifestyle business in general than to the effect that her scandal might have had. So overall, it can be said that the scandal tarnished her personal image, but didn’t affect the company’s brand name too much (Kell, 2015).
Martha Stewart was always known to be an autocratic leader and even after her prison sentence, her leadership style hasn’t changed much. She might have lived through very difficult times and hardships, but the qualities or attributes of a hard core leader hasn’t changed, as can be judged from her latest interviews (Bitti, 2015).
The performance of Mary Bara was pretty good in the overall GM recall controversy. She did a lot of things well. The initial step to admit the fault and recall the cars was really necessary as it didn’t further jeopardise the position of either her or the company. Instead it allowed them to fix the mistake and move forward (Seitel, 2014).
Also, throughout the crisis, she was very visible in the public and handled most of the press herself. This portrayed her as a leader who would protect the company. She also ordered instant enquiry into fault. All these attributes show that her performance was very good during the crisis time and she has been lauded for it by many onlookers.
References
Kell, J. (2015). Martha Stewart just sold her media empire for a near-clearance price. Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/06/22/martha-stewart-sold/.
Bitti, M. T. (2015). Martha Stewart on leadership and her success: ‘Hardship does not make you better. I was good to start with’. Financial Post. Retrieved from http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/martha-stewart-on-leadership-and-her-success-hardship-does-not-make-you-better-i-was-good-to-start-with.
Seitel, F. (2014). GM's recall scandal: A scorecard on CEO Mary Barra. Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2014/03/21/gms-recall-scandal-a-scorecard-on-ceo-mary-barra/.
