Ideally, the 'Reputation' of an organisation should be a key asset on its balance sheet. A poor reputation drives Investors and Customers away and Organisations with poor reputations find these grow negatively when they fail to take action to prevent bad things happening.

To me Reputation Management is about protecting the Brand, whether it be a FMCG, a public service, a company, Hospital or whatever.

Branding

All businesses have a "brand" whether or not they have a logo, strap line or company song! The brand is what you are currently. Hopefully, you will be managing that brand so that you can become the very best you can be in the near future, maintain that brand and build upon it.

Companies such as Coca Cola, Royal Bank of Scotland, the English Rugby Team, National Heritage, the RSPB and Volkswagen all have a reputation depicted by their particular brand. The brand tells you what they stand for and what is important to them.

If the brand is strong, it will be a dominant aspect of the culture - if it is weak - you will attract less than passing interest from commentators and probably little attention from people seeking employment.

Great brands are attractive and impress people. People love working for super organisations with a name for excellence. That's what Reputation Management is all about - its about taking both preventative and corrective action to protect and promote the brand at every opportunity.

Reputation Management should not be just a small that reports to the communications or marketing manager. It is central to the strategic health of the organisation and responsibility should reside in the top team and be shared across boundaries.

Statutory Responsibilities

For those organisations who have statutory responsibilities it is even more important to ensure that a series of methodologies are in place to ensure that the "brand" is protected.

Reputation Tarnished

Recent News coverage on the loss of Data from Government bodies in the UK has put the reputation of those agencies in question. Before you know it the reputation of these agencies is at rock bottom as is the proposed action on National identity cards. But there is also a negative knock on effect to other matters.

Further losses of data and further allegations fuel the fire. This impacts the reputation of Government being able to handle such data. This creates issues that could impact the policy on National Identity cards.

There is a multiplier effect. If we fail to control and deal with critical incidents they can have huge effects on any organisation from Financial services to Healthcare.

The trouble here is that specific incidents take on global proportions. Failing to meet the expectations of consumers creates an impression of doubt and mistrust which is difficult to change.

Damage Limitation

It is much better to have a damage limitation strategy in place with a formalised Communications Strategy to address such problems as they arise than relying on the CEO to make a fast and furious statement to the press and the public.

Crisis Management

It's relatively easy and quick to put the needed 20% of an effective change strategy in place that addresses the 80% of problems. Only lack of will stands in the way.

Contact Us