Nvidia, Just Ranked Forbes' Most Trusted Company, Now Has Work To Do

Just last month, for the second year in a row, Nvidia was No. 1 on Forbes’ list of The Most Trusted Companies In America, a ranking based on such metrics as employee, customer, investor and creditor trust. Now that Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Huang has resigned following reports of extramarital affairs (one with a subordinate and one with a suspected Chinese spy), longtime crisis expert Robbie Vorhaus is invoking one of Warren Buffett’s most famous aphorisms: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.”

Nvidia’s reputation “is definitely going to take a hit” on trustworthiness in general, Austin-based Vorhaus said. “Everyone (at Nvidia) who’s responsible for every area of the business is going to have to communicate with customers, employees, investors … to telegraph that things are okay, are going to be okay, and that we’re going to get through this because of the strength of the brand, because of the strength of the product.”

The speed with which Huang was toppled from Nvidia is a cautionary tale, said Davia Temin, a Forbes contributor who runs her own crisis management firm out of New York. High-profile companies can find themselves in a major public relations crisis “in nanoseconds,’’ she said. “It travels hugely fast. And even if people aren’t interested in a lot of facts, they sure are interested in scandal.”

Huang was an unusually high profile founder-CEO, known for his tight control of the company (with dozens of direct reports), crucial role in the artificial intelligence revolution, influence with President Donald Trump—and ubiquitous black leather jacket. The scandal is a reminder of why it’s perilous for any company to rely heavily on a high-profile figurehead, Temin said, noting plenty of similar examples in recent history, such as when Martha Stewart was jailed in 2004 after her conviction on charges related to an insider-trading case. Stewart notably rebuilt her empire.