According to the new TrustR ranking, last year Toyota was one of the most trusted and recommended brands in the United States. Now a series of recalls involving a number of different models has undermined that trust and plunged Toyota into the media spotlight. Slow to respond to the mounting crisis, the company has done a less than stellar job in handling the negative PR. The question is, what should Toyota’s management team do now?

The fact that a car manufacturer has to recall a model is nothing new. Cars have always been innately complex products and consumers accept that things may go wrong. The long-term effects of recalls are usually determined by how well they are managed.

The news that Wal-Mart is dumping some well-known brand names in favor of its own will no doubt send another round of shivers through the U.S. consumer packaged goods world. (Click here for story.) Where will it all end? Is no brand safe? I believe the answer is the same as it’s always been: Strong brands, the ones shoppers really desire, have little to fear. And fewer brands on the shelf may go some way to re-establishing consumer’s satisfaction with the brands they do buy.

Recently I had the opportunity to compare a number of management dashboards, and what they all had in common was an excess of metrics focused on past performance at the expense of measures that described future potential. That seems a strange way to manage a business, particularly if it is one that relies on the strength of its brands to turn a profit.

Last week found me back in Johannesburg listening to the inimitable Charles Foster, CEO of Millward Brown South Africa, as he reviewed the last 25 years of advertising in that country. The combination of 25 great TV commercials and Charles’s enthusiasm for his subject made for a very enjoyable experience, and also highlighted a point that has been emphasized recently in two of our Points of View: Sometimes ads that resonate well with a local audience simply do not make sense to people from other countries and cultures.

I have just returned from South Africa, where I attended a Millward Brown global conference for senior management.  At the meeting I met new colleagues from around the world and reconnected with others I have known for years. The experience reminded me that I am privileged to work with a diverse and talented group of people. It also reminded me of the phrase I first heard from Brian Fetherstonhaugh (the chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide): “Relationships are wine-enabled, not web-enabled.” No matter how well you know someone and how many emails you exchange, without face time your relationship will weaken across time and distance.