After shares in BYD, a Chinese car company backed by his Berkshire Hathaway, crashed without explanation earlier this month, Warren Buffett had reason to recall his famous adage about swimming naked when the tide rolls out. If it's any consolation, the "Sage of Omaha" had plenty of company in Asia in 2014. As the year draws to a close, it's time to name and shame the companies, politicians and corporate emperors caught out looking distinctly undressed. Herewith, my second-annual Naked Awards:
Leung Chun-ying: Hong Kong's chief executive may have won points with authorities in Beijing for staring down the months-long Occupy Central protests. But among his own people, Leung's credibility is in tatters. The wildly unpopular and tin-eared leader wasn't helped by his daughter's juvenile Facebook posts poking fun at the city's poor. But his own comments about the dangers of allowing less well-off Hong Kongers to choose their own leader will rankle far longer.
Sony: Already adrift, the Japanese corporate icon ignominiously caved in to Kim Jong Un in history's most bizarre hacking scandal. Imagine if the next world war was fought over Seth Rogen and James Franco! Three years after PlayStation accounts were hacked, Sony's cyber-defenses look about as resilient as the company's pipeline of innovative products.