Is your CEO in their villain-era?

By Dawn Hesketh-Guilfoyle – Director

In today’s landscape, authenticity is everything. Customers don’t just buy what a brand sells, they buy what it stands for. But what happens when your CEO is no longer the hero of the brand story.  

The CEO scandals that have made the headlines of late aren’t just salacious viral meme content  – here today, gone tomorrow. They are serious breaches of trust that, if managed badly, can have long-term repercussions for a brand.  

When a CEO’s personal behaviour contradicts the values their company claims to uphold, whether it’s inclusion, integrity or traditionalism, the brand is exposed. Not just to criticism, but to a much deeper kind of disillusionment. Consumers, employees, and investors alike begin to question their alignment with the brand and stock – quite literally in some cases – starts to plummet.  

From the tech founders caught in compromising positions on Kiss Cams to executives making unethical decisions behind closed doors, the reputational damage doesn’t just come from the scandal itself; it comes from the disconnect between the brand’s public promises and its private reality. 

This is the heart of the issue: authenticity isn’t what a brand says – it’s what it consistently does. And a CEO, more than anyone else, is expected to live and breathe that mission. When they fall short, it breaks the illusion. People don’t just lose trust – they feel betrayed.  

In a world where brand values are front and centre, it may seem crazy that a single leadership scandal can unravel years of hard-won credibility. But it can and it has. Consumer backlash, employee disengagement, investor anxiety, and long-term brand erosion are just some of the many repercussions of CEOs losing face and allowing their personal actions to wreck their professional home.  

Some may argue that it’s up to them what they do behind closed doors. But in the age of oversharing, can doors ever truly stay closed? And so, a CEO must remain uncompromised if they want to protect the foundations of the brand they have stewardship over.  

However, like any story arc, where there are villains, a hero is never too far behind.  

There are some brilliant examples of CEOs who just get it so right when it comes to building trust; using their very public platform for good, opening themselves up to both media and public scrutiny, standing for something they believe in and letting their hero flag fly.  

When done well, stepping into the spotlight and championing the authenticity that members of the public value can be a potent ingredient for success.  

Iceland’s Richard Walker became a national hero when he campaigned to change outdated legislation around baby formula, which was preventing the retailer from delivering on its promise to support families against a cost-of-living backdrop. Not only that, but he quite literally put his money where his mouth was and welcomed the fines he would likely incur for discounting the product.  

With hero CEOs like this, is it any wonder that the major supermarket sector scored highest in our Authenticity Index? Our Brands Under Pressure report published earlier this year showed that 42% of people surveyed believed the nation’s supermarket brands to be authentic.  

So there you have it. Authenticity isn’t something that can be achieved effortlessly. It has to be built, brick by brick, often by many hands. But a whiff of scandal, often caused by one individual, can see it all come tumbling down. How strong is your brand’s foundations and is your CEO the villain or the hero of the story?