Menu
Hello everyone, welcome to the Reputation Digest – a new monthly blog that will serve as your round-up on all things reputation and crisis management.
But before we dig into the latest and greatest issues dominating from the past month, a little on why we have set this blog up, and what you can expect from us going forward.
Reputation management is changing
The discipline of reputation is at an interesting juncture. The sector has been built on the practice of protecting and safeguarding reputation, where our industry has been there to support individuals and organisations when things go wrong or new ‘threats’ emerge.
This is all still important. But the world is changing. Information production is now in the hands of everyone; people are savvy, informed, and less willing to accept a carefully crafted message; and as the power of governments to address issues has faltered, the expectation is now on businesses to act on the big issues.
Brand instinct is to see these paradigm shifts as threats – there is now a greater need to Protect, Preserve and Promote. But this reduces the end goal of reputation – establishing a social license to operate – to the practice of building capital by solely deflecting risk. While this may have been effective in times gone by – where companies aim at the perfect reputation through a command-and-control approach to comms – in today’s digital, open and polarised world it’s unlikely to shift the needle.
Focus on corporate character and positive reputation will follow
We believe those in the business of reputation need to adapt to and get ahead of these changes, supporting those leading communications teams into a new era of reputation management. But how? For us, the answer lies in Corporate Character.
Rather than being shaped by the controlled and tailored messages that specific audiences are told, an organisation’s reputation is shaped by how people experience its character. And a well-defined and integrated corporate character can engender trust and motivate stakeholders to advocate on behalf of organisations, giving them greater license to experiment, get things wrong, and still thrive. Rather than Protecting, Preserving and Promoting, it means Engaging, Acknowledging and Opening Up.
More from us on this idea soon, but for now, the Reputation Digest will act as your monthly download on how organisations are navigating this changing world, and how some are turning towards concepts such as a refocus on Character to strengthen their reputations.
We hope you will enjoy reading.
Image: Ben White / Unsplash
