More and more issues are emerging that are affecting reputation. These include sexual misconduct in the workplace, state capture, diversity, inclusion, corruption, fake news, power politics, cyber risk and school safety.

The phrase ‘STATE CAPTURE’ was awarded ‘word of the year’ by eNCA who claims the phrase was used more than 20,231 times in over 11,000 South African newspapers. The saga certainly points to lobbying being taken to a new level, and the misuse of power and influence. The #GuptaLeaks scandal has resulted in widespread turmoil, annihilating and, embarrassing organisations and individuals and who knows what will emerge from the continuing investigations.

Rogue Professional Services firm Bell Pottinger certainly dented the PR Industry’s Reputation, and its demise has certainly hastened the adoption of the Helsinki Declaration.

The Helsinki Declaration is a set of principles aimed at uniting the global PR industry under a single banner of ethical behaviour. It calls on members to stand by the 10 principles including to observe the highest professional standards in the practice of public relations and communications. I hope PR companies have shared this with their staff members and will include adherence to it in performance reviews.

The fallout from the Weinstein sexual misconduct revelations has resulted in the #MeToo campaign which hit worldwide mainstream headlines with more and more people coming to the fore with facts and allegations.

Even Weber Shandwick has recruited Tai Wingfield, corporate communications chief of the Center for Talent Innovation, to run its newly formed diversity, equity and inclusion practice.

The firm says that strategies it will employ include: raising awareness and understanding around the business case for diversity; navigating culture change and transformation; communicating around complex social issues and demonstrating an organization’s commitment to advancing DEI. “We are integrating our world-class expertise in employee engagement, corporate reputation, social impact, high-impact marketing programs and the DEI landscape to help clients deliver on this important opportunity,” said WS CEO Andy Polansky.

Unfortunately getting involved in highly charged political and social issues, come with risk as this leading article “CEOs Choose Sides on Gun Control at Their Own Risk – CEOs feel pressure from younger, digitally savvy consumers and from employees to take a stand on issues, but corporate reputation can suffer” point out.

What is your take on Gun violence? And your company’s view on it? What are you saying to your clients?

Safety and Security is part of Crisis Planning, Issues Management and Compliance and can most certainly impact Reputation.

Reputation Risk research shows that reputation damage is often caused by poor leadership, lack of compliance and culture issues. Various disciplines are involved in managing these domains and a way should be found to overcome silo management and centralize reputation management. One way is to form a Reputation Risk Committee whose sole aim should be to protect trust, integrity and brand reputation. Mail me for a suggested structured agenda for such a committee to follow.

Since many reputation risks emerge in the “personality” part of an organisation – the culture of the organisation it is therefore imperative for OD and PR experts to work closely together if you want to create a robust reputation risk assurance framework for an organisation. For instance compliance to Sarbanes-Oxley and various corporate governance codes are essential but if the culture of the organisation is one of being unethical, not stakeholder focused and inward focused, then gaps will occur.

Decision-making remains a problem in South Africa. There seems to be a real lack and grasp of looking systemically at issues. The Life Esedemi court case has really exposed a lack of caring, attention and monitoring by Government officials.

The cold and ruthless behavior and lack of compassion and accepting accountability by the Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu is an example of the necessity of OD practitioners to do more work on corporate culture, coaching of leaders and internal communication.

I cannot believe that I wrote this in August 2012 but the message “Executives Need to Learn a New Style of Decision-making” certainly resonates with what is happening in the country, me thinks – What do you think?

A good read in this regard is the article What Are the Real Lessons of the Wells Fargo Case? From Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

Reputation drives sustainability not just profitability. Brands no longer have the option to be silent on divisive social issues, according to the fourth iteration of FleishmanHillard’s Authenticity Gap report, but it comes with risk and opportunity.

The post New and Emerging Issues in Reputation Management appeared first on Deon Binneman.

An article on Investors.com about how much reputational value is locked up in the CEO, caught my attention. In this article

A CEO’s Reputation Can Make Or Break A Firm; 3 Ways To Improve It – Investors.com research is quoted from a worldwide  survey by public-opinion pollster KRC Research and public-relations firm Weber Shandwick.

The resulting report, “The CEO Reputation Premium: Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era,” says, “Nearly half of a company’s market value is attributable to its CEO.”

The benefits include attracting investors (according to 87% of executives surveyed), positive media attention (83%) and crisis protection (83%).

And a CEO who makes himself look bad hurts his company.

This is well known to crisis experts like myself. Negative CEO behavior often leads to rapid share price decreases and organisational changes.

It is also a trend that in many crises CEO’s are fired by the Board or resign due to public pressure. Turnaround experts always say that the quickest way to change an organisation is to get rid of the CEO.

This is based on the very principle that waterfalls flow top to bottom

As the saying goes. Fishes rot from the Head. On the other hand, Positive leaders set examples and drive strategic direction.

Contrast that with Political Leaders who hang on to their power bases or continue with little regard because they have the majority vote.

The research shows that a CEO’s value varies from nation to nation. Executives surveyed in Indonesia say that a chief executive’s reputation is worth 68% of his company’s market value, but the figure is only 25% in the United Kingdom, while the U.S. comes in at 38%.

So, what are some of the obvious things a CEO can do to up his and the organisation’s reputation.

Speak at industry or trade conferences, the survey found. More than 76% of executives said so.

Be accessible to the Media, the 2nd next most popular recommendations were to be accessible to the news media (71%) and be visible on the company website (68%).

Take Action  on issues.  As the Vietnamse proverb states “Talk does not cook rice”. The survey found that respondents all advised that whatever tactic a CEO takes, the key is to act now.

Shannon Wilkerson, CEO of reputation management firm Reputation Communications, recently told the Wall Street Journal that the most common mistake among CEOs is “to do nothing.” She added, “When that happens, the world creates your profile. … Whatever information third parties publish about you — whether credible or not, whether quality or not — will fill out the top pages of the Google search in your name.”

So some recommendations and takeaways for Reputation Managers:

1. Develop a Speaker Visibility Program for your CEO.

2. Get the CEO to use multiple chanells to engage and communicate with stakeholders.

3. Advise and counsel the CEO about the importance of taking action. As General Patton said: ” The imperfect plan executed now , is better than the perfect plan executed next week. Involve your OD/Organisational Behavior experts in this quest.

The post A CEO’s Reputation Can Make Or Break A Firm – Recommendations to Increase Impact appeared first on Deon Binneman.

Words are empty. Actions speak louder than words. In the field of Reputation Management this is so true. The actions and behaviors of management either add or distract from building reputation.

The post Talk doesn’t cook rice!!!- A Vietnamese Proverb [Quote] appeared first on Deon Binneman.

A thought provoking article in the Huffington Post called “ Even Companies That Sell Tampons Are Run By Men” got me thinking.

How inclusive are your Stakeholder Profiling efforts?

The King 3 Code on Corporate Governance makes specific mention of stakeholder inclusivity (i.e. that the legitimate interests and expectations of stakeholders are considered when deciding in the best interests of the company), stakeholder identification and determination of expectations and needs, the proactive management of stakeholder relationships, and that management should develop a strategy and formulate policies for the management of relationships with each stakeholder grouping. .

The article questions the wisdom that few companies selling products to women have their core customers in various leadership positions.

What are you doing to include more women in management? What % of your customers are women? Do you take this difference into account in your marketing and product design efforts?

Should you not include more women in leadership positions? This Stakeholder Reputation and OD issue is bound to become more important in the next few years.

Prepare now. Transformation is about much more than just BEE. It is also about focused marketing and stakeholder development.

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A New Report from the UK Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) found that Boards need to set and maintain company values.

The author writes that “Culture affects a company’s ability to generate value. A strong culture makes for sustainable value creation. A weak one can destroy the business overnight. This why is boards must be involved and not simply relegate culture to compliance teams.”Directors have to understand how values influence the business model and what drives good behaviour by employees.”

Since values influence trust it is important for boards to understand trust and the role it plays in their company. Values are thus a primary task for boards, and an integral part of their governance role.

This totally in line with what I have always told audiences. Values influence behaviors and should be articulated into specific behaviors that staff could emulate or held accountable for.

Values are not just empty words on walls. They should be described, lived and measured.

Adherence to Values can go a long way to build Trust and ultimately Reputation.

For more information on Trust, read a New Paradigm for Organizational Trust. Also access this handy resource on trust: A Free and living Bibliography of Trust #trust – Essential for #OD & Reputation Managers

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The recent agreement reached between the Construction Industry and the Competition Commission for collusive tendering got me thinking. (15 construction companies had agreed to pay fines totalling R1.46 billion for collusive tendering).

What are the signs of impending and unavoidable doom in our businesses and why do we not see, sense them or hear about them? Surely there are signs or hints that there are trouble on the horizon?

Why do we not pick up on patterns of wrong decision-making in committees?

In the book the Alchemist Paul Coelho writes about the importance of omens – prophetic signs or significance. Omens are an indication or sense of what is to come; often the writing on the wall. The allusion is to the Book of Daniel in the Bible, in which a hand mysteriously appeared and wrote a message on Balshazzar’s palace wall foretelling his destruction and the loss of his kingdom.

In business, the signs come in many shapes and definitions.

Incidents. Issues. Near Misses. Rumours. Internal chatter. Suggestions. Complaints. Patterns. CCMA cases. Grievances. Internal Audit reports.

All Signs and Omens. What more do you need to act before there is whistleblowing or a Wikileaks?

A friend of mine once said: “ Watch out for the sleeping crocodiles in your business. Catch it before it gets you”

Ultimately these omens are all signs of possible reputation risk, if we define reputation risk as anything that might potentially damage the good name and reputation of an organisation. Signs that there might be an unwanted event or unwanted publicity around the corner.

To prevent potential damage to an organisation’s most valuable asset – it’s reputation, it is important to realise that the above signs are clear indicators of a need to create better and more robust internal communication feedback systems, better discussion and listening tools and instruments and corporate culture interventions.

Also read my post on You better be Awake: Searching for Vulnerabilities. In this post, I make the point that “To close the gap or feedback loop I would certainly urge Reputation managers to establish close links with the Risk Department, Internal Auditors and Compliance Officers in the organisation. Often these are the individuals that uncover areas what I would call smouldering crises – any serious business problem which is not generally known within or without the organisation, which may generate negative news coverage and reputational damage if or when it goes “public” and could result in fines, penalties or unbudgeted expenses, loss of business and destruction of relationships.

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Organisations are like elephants – they learn through conditioning.

Trainers shackle young elephants with heavy chains to deeply embedded stakes.

After years of being chained, older elephants never try and leave even though they have the strength to pull the stakes out. Their conditioning limits their movements with only a small metal bracelet around their foot – attached to nothing

Like elephants, many companies are bound by earlier conditioning restraints. “We have always done it this way” is a limit to an organisation’s progress especially in this new era of enhanced speed.

In order to survive in this new society you have to let go of the shackles of the past. Too many organisations still have metal bracelets around their feet. However to make things happen you need to mobilise the support of your people behind your change.

And the process through which to do this: COMMUNICATION. My questions to you or to ask your clients is this:

• “What shackles are constraining communication flow in your organisation”
• Isn’t it about time for a relook or a new look at communication practices in your company?

The post The Shackles Of “We Have Always Done It This Way” appeared first on Deon Binneman.

Reputation Risk has been described as elusive and difficult to manage. Some have even called it “Soft issues, tangible impacts”.

Why? Why is it difficult to manage? Well, for one few know how an issue or crisis can erupt. It may or may not. An issue may be material or not.

To understand reputation risk you need to understand some basic tenets of risk and reputation. Risk is something that causes a sudden and unforeseen event leading to loss of expected income, damage to property or harm to individuals. It is the possibility that a future event may cause harm.

Pure risk – a Risk that results only in loss, damage, disruption or injury whilst speculative risk – is a risk which carries the potential of either a loss or a gain. Risk is also a combination of probability and consequences.

In my own consulting work I define, Reputational Risk as the loss of earnings that occur in a situation of negative public opinion. It normally results when the reasonable expectations of stakeholders are not met and culminates in loss of sales, share value decreases and breakdown of relationships. It is the adverse operational and financial impact to business performance when the company’s good name gets tarnished.

In the case of many of the corporate disasters a decision was taken without due thought, to its implications, and hence it backfired. It is thus important to realise that a decision has reputational implications if it has the potential to affect the relationship between the company and any of its stakeholders. In other words, it is difficult to think of a decision that does not have reputational implications. I believe that we can go a long way to minimise corporate disasters if we teach directors and senior executives the value of perception management, stakeholder reputation and good ethics.

By exposing them to these concepts the likelihood of reputation damage can be minimized since they will factor reputation earlier into the decision making mix. My reasoning is that in most of the Corporate Disasters currently there is a pattern of limited and distorted decision making. Many decisions are made not considering all the angles and potential impact zones.

Every decision that an organisation must make has four broad sets of implications. The obvious three sets of implications are operational, financial and legal.

The fourth set of implications is generally ignored, delegated or included in the process only on the basis of the “gut instinct” of one of the participants. This fourth set of implications is reputational.

The reputational implications of a business decision can be defined as those that impact the way in which an organization is regarded by those with whom it interacts, including shareholders, customers and employees, as well as suppliers, government regulators, the media and even competitors (and any other stakeholder). This fits in well with the ecology model of organisational effectiveness. The New Collins Concise English Dictionary defines ecology as:”The study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment, the set of relationships of a particular organism with its environment.”

This means that the ecology model is concerned with the organisation’s ability to deal with internal and external contingencies, and its ability to manage interrelationships between stakeholders in the context of its environment. Any organisation is dependent on its stakeholders for support and the strategic importance of any stakeholder depends on how dependent the organisation is upon it. And this relationship can change over a period of time or due to indiscretions.

Reputation, most managers today would agree, is an asset, even if only a perceptual asset (or, if mismanaged, a liability). It certainly is not optional. Every corporation, organization, institution, individual has a reputation. The only option is whether to manage it or allow it to be inferred. If reputation is a strategic resource and if it is to add value, it should be managed with the same care and attention as any asset. It should be obvious that if a decision has four broad sets of implications, and only three are formally and routinely considered, the potential exists for flawed decision making. After all, the role of a manager is to manage all the assets under his or her control effectively.

Most Directors, leaders and managers have never received training in managing an organisation’s reputation, yet some studies now show that reputation can make up as much as 55% of an organisation’s share price. They receive training in Corporate Governance, but companies tend to forget why governance is important. The end purpose of governance is to be perceived in an excellent manner by your stakeholders. Thus the end purpose of governance is to have an excellent reputation.

A large proportion of intangible assets is thus not being adequately managed and may be at risk in today’s knowledge based economy.

By getting directors and senior managers to interact and learn about the link between reputation and effective decision making you will raise the ante, improve their competences and minimise the likelihood of reputation damage. Davis Young, in “Building your company’s good name” wrote:

“Every employee needs training to understand the impact their actions have on your company’s good name and its business success. This training needs to start the day they are hired, with daily reinforcement thereafter, if only through leadership modelling. Every employee must understand the importance of his or her actions in terms of what those will mean to the organisation’s reputation”

Companies, who do not provide reputation management training to their directors, and senior executives, are at RISK.

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