10 Ways to Damage Your Organization’s Reputation (2025 Edition)

1. Manage reputation reactively. Wait until a crisis trends on X (Twitter) or goes viral on TikTok before responding. Never monitor social listening tools or online sentiment.
2. Treat reputation as a communications problem. Delegate your organization’s credibility—which drives up to 80% of market value—to a small PR team. Expect them to spin away systemic issues with press releases and influencer partnerships.
3. Never prepare for inevitable crises. Assume leaders will make perfect decisions under pressure, even without scenario planning, crisis simulations, or clear protocols. Wing it when deepfakes, data breaches, or employee whistleblowers emerge.
4. Ignore early warning signals. Don’t scan social media, employee review sites (Glassdoor), or stakeholder forums for brewing issues. Treat rapid change as unpredictable chaos rather than something you can actively monitor and prepare for.
5. Build reputation through advertising alone. Invest millions in brand campaigns while ignoring employee experience, product quality, and customer service. Assume external messaging matters more than internal reality.
6. Treat employees as expendable resources. View your workforce as a cost center, not as brand ambassadors whose Glassdoor reviews, LinkedIn posts, and dinner-table conversations shape your reputation daily.
7. Never consider stakeholder perspectives. Operate with shareholder primacy as your only lens. Ignore customers, communities, suppliers, and activists who can destroy your reputation overnight with a viral post or coordinated boycott.
8. Dismiss what you can’t easily measure. Ignore trust, culture, and brand equity because they’re “intangible.” Never invest in reputation measurement tools or track Net Promoter Score, employee engagement, or ESG ratings.
9. Treat ethics and sustainability as PR checkboxes. Issue glossy ESG reports while practicing greenwashing, paying lip service to diversity, or hiding supply chain abuses. Assume Gen Z employees and consumers won’t call you out.
10. Believe reputation doesn’t matter—until it’s gone. Dismiss Warren Buffett’s warning: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Learn this lesson the hard way when a single scandal tanks your stock, talent pipeline, and customer loyalty.

I would appreciate comment about this list.

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Santa Claus is definitely not dead to many.

His reputation remains intact, but to the contrary, there are many companies no longer around, and not all of the failures are due to Covid19.

In fact, if failed companies have obituaries many of them would read as follows:

‘Here lies the XYZ Company, born 1966, died 2020 after a reputation risk incident.

Mourned by directors, staff, shareholders, and other stakeholders. No flowers.

Rather send donations to the Society for the Preservation of Trust, Integrity and Reputation.

Afterthought: Most companies say that reputation is vital, yet if you check their annual learning & development agendas there is no provision made to train Directors, executives, management & staff about why reputation is an asset and a risk and should be managed and protected.

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Reputation risk has a tendency to emerge when we expect it the least.

Since everything we do and say can have an impact on the reputation of the organization, careful attention needs to be given to the management of a company’s reputation as an asset and a risk.

Worldwide research shows that many private and public sector organisations regard reputation as their biggest risk. Like all of the intangible assets whose value has escalated in recent years (other examples are talent, knowledge, know-how and intellectual property), reputation has been overlooked by organisations because it is so difficult to comprehend.

It is only when a reputation incident severely damages the credibility of an organisation or one of its brands, or its standing in the eyes of its stakeholders, that the potentially catastrophic consequences of not managing the crisis properly become apparent.

Studies of organisations that have handled crises affecting their reputation badly have identified long term and irreparable damage to share price, market share and brand value.

Many organisations make the mistake of assuming that all that is needed is media training and crisis planning. However, a reputation crisis exposes to public and media scrutiny not only the organisation’s competence at crisis handling but the values, standards and shortcomings that existed beforehand.

The reputation strategy should, therefore, have two simple objectives – to prevent the causes that could damage your reputation and to minimise the impact if, despite your best endeavours, a reputation crisis should occur.

It will therefore be in an organisation’s best interest:

• To ensure that all managers and staff members understand the nature of the organisation’s reputation and their own individual reputation;
• That the Board establish a reputation risk management strategy;
• To develop standards and controls for the action that the reputation asset building and risk management strategy places most importance on;
• To provide reputation management training, education and communication to obtain the vital support and commitment of all employees and managers;
• To pay special attention to red flags – analysis and monitoring mechanisms to provide early warning of problems or crises;
• To implement a process of continuous crisis assessment

Some organisations have attempted part of this process themselves, particularly the first four stages. In my experience, they are severely disadvantaged by being too close to the issues, or by risking avoiding taboo or politically difficult areas, or by not challenging assumptions vigorously or objectively enough.

It is often said that a doctor cannot prescribe medicine, unless he conducts a proper diagnosis. The same holds true for definitions. Unless you define something clearly, the wrong approach to deal with it may be taken.

Here then is a few of the definitions that I unpack for my audiences in my Mitigating and Managing Reputation Risk Management Master Class. Use these to define and customize your approach in preparing your organization to deal with unwanted reputation damage.

Although Reputation Risk often is the consequence of lack of compliance for instance, it is vital for compliance experts to understand their role in the management of this intangible but vital asset.

Just consider these two slightly reframed definitions and your role:

Definition 1:

Reputation risk is the risk that potential negative publicity regarding an institution’s business practices could cause a decline in the customer base, costly litigation, or revenue reductions.

Errors or fraud can have serious ramifications on the public perception of an institution.

Management can mitigate reputation risk by having an effective public relations program, by developing and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships, and by enacting adequate internal controls over all aspects of the organization and internal systems so that errors do not happen in the first place.

Definition 2:

Reputation risk is the current and prospective impact on earnings and capital arising from negative public opinion.

This affects the institution’s ability to establish new relationships or services or continue servicing existing relationships. This risk may expose the institution to litigation, financial loss, or a decline in its customer base. Reputation risk exposure is present throughout the organization and includes the responsibility to exercise an abundance of caution in dealing with its stakeholders such as customers and the community.

Very often the issue of materiality can blow a small thing into a large issue.

Exposing managers and compliance experts on how an incident can escalate and create huge impact is vital. Working on these definitions will close the gap between tangible asset control and the impact of intangibles.

An organisation’s reputation remains its greatest asset and risk and needs to be managed accordingly. If you would like to know more about Reputation Risk which is mentioned in the King Code 4 on Corporate Governance, read this blog post – or attend the next Mitigating and Managing Reputation Risk Master Class.

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Exercise – Enhancing Your Company’s Reputation Consider this word Enhancement. What does it really mean? To do this we have to look at some definitions. Abraham Maslow, the psychologist who designed the hierarchy of needs also said that if the only thing you have is a hammer you tend to treat everything as if it’s a nail. When it comes to sustaining and enhancing your company’s reputation you need to be ruthless, and you need to be clear as to how you define it in your mind. The following exercise will help you to define how to enhance your organization’s most important asset – it’s reputation. The word enhancement means to heighten, intensify(qualities of power and value), improve(something already of a good quality), raise, increase, augment, add to, deepen, strengthen, reinforce, sharpen, develop, amplify, expand, magnify, maximise, boost, refine, polish, upgrade and enrich. Take each of these words/definitions and rewrite them in terms of your Reputation Management responsibility. Be clear and specific and convert each of these statements into specific tasks and action plans. For example, “How can I maximize my organization’s reputation in the work and marketplace?” How can I reinforce the messages (verbal, nonverbal and media related) that underpins my organization’s reputation? This exercise will enable you to have a far clearer picture of how you will approach the mammoth task of enhancing your company’s reputation.

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In today’s knowledge economy your reputation is your stock-in-trade. It’s your most important asset that you own next to your health.

This is no misnomer. In today’s interconnected “news” always-on world, your name will arrive at a destination long before you do.

Unfortunately few people gives this a thought. But, some like the ancient philosopher Socrates did. Socrates (– 469 BC – 399 BC) said: “Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of – for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.”

Joseph Addison wrote: “Why you have to constantly work on your Reputation: Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object; unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a perpetual succession of miracles rising into view”.

Stephen Covey spoke about sharpening the saw, others speak about constant learning and upgrading of your own repertoire of skills. My blog updates aims to help you to keep your own saw sharpened.

These quotes are backed up by the “Oracle of Oklahoma” Mr. Warren Buffett . Mr. Buffett is famous for this quote:

The key statement here is that ” you’ll do things differently”

The implications of these quotes is that your name – your reputation is something that needs constant work just like a gardener attending to his flower beds. Like as in gardening it does not take much for weeds to grow, pests to come and flowers to wilt.

Personal Reputation boils down to three crucial elements:

1. Know-how (Your intellectual capital i.e. what you know);

2. A Network of contacts (Social Capital – who you know);

3. Your Reputation (Reputational Capital – who trusts you).

The key for any person who is interested to build their own reputation is to work on these elements as part of their own career development plan.

It is interesting and disconcerting that I often get emails from managers who tell me that they do not wish to receive information about Reputation. I chuckle, because these are the managers who are going to find it increasingly difficult in the years to come. In a society where intangibles rule, where the common currency for trust is reputation, more and more organizations are including management of reputation into KPA’s.

Learning how to manage reputation and mitigate this risk – Reputation Risk should be on your To-Do list, that is if you want to remain current and relevant.

Constant attention and vigilance is needed if you want to maintain and safeguard your reputation. Do you know what drives your reputation? Do you know what can add or subtract from that reputation?

Read my blog posts and sign up for my training and learn how to boost and safeguard your own reputation.

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The beauty about stories is that they are like metaphors. I once saw a study that said that metaphors appeal to both the left and the right side of the brain.

I am not a Buddhist, yet am extremely fond of Zen Koans.

The way I try and do it is to research before every group facilitation stories, anecdotes, metaphors and humor that I can have in the “wings” based on the diversity of the group.

That way I may have options available to “unlock the potential” of someone.

Just like a builder uses solid construction practices, we need to design or build our training based on proven ways that the brain works. We know a lot about adult learning principles and how the brain works. The “best practice”of using metaphors and analogies takes advantage of at least two key facts:

–  The brain works by building connections and associations.

–  The brain remembers more easily things that are novel or unusual.

The right analogy or metaphor can be quite novel, build connections to the material you are teaching and often create the “aha” experience the learners need to effectively learn the new information.

Let me use an example. If I am working with a group of executives about the organization’s reputation, I will tell them that they have to be careful how they communicate, how they behave as it will impact on the way stakeholders perceive them. That is a linear and left brain approach.

But for some this story will have more impact.

SPOKEN  WORDS  CAN’ T  BE  RETRIEVED

A farmer slandered his neighbor. Realizing his mistake, he went to the preacher to ask for forgiveness. The preacher told him to take a bag of feathers and drop them in the centre of  town. The farmer did as he was told . Then the preacher asked him to go and collect the feathers and put them back in the bag. The farmer tried but couldn’t as the feathers had all blown away.

When he returned with the empty bag, the  preacher said, “The same thing is true about  your words. You  dropped them rather easily but you cannot retrieve them, so be very careful in choosing your words.”

Which one has more impact for you?

It depends on your style of learning and brain dominance preference. In today’s society this message extends to social media updates.

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Two interesting research studies results came out the past week.

The Reputation Institute (RI), released the results of the World’s Most Reputable Companies 2018 survey, the company’s annual Global RepTrak® 100 (RT100) rankings. The 2018 RT100 is  the world’s largest corporate reputation study of its kind. The RT100 is based on more than 230,000 individual ratings collected in the first quarter of 2018. It includes comparative rankings, demographic trends, and unique insights into the dynamics behind reputational impact.

The global study shows what drives trust and identifies supportive behaviors such as intent to purchase a company’s products, willingness to invest in, or even work for, the company.

The rankings drop for 58 percent of companies surveyed shows there has been a decline in trust and ultimately reputation. The results show that garnering support among stakeholders has become more difficult; that expectations have risen, making it harder to earn trust, attain benefit of the doubt, create consumer loyalty and entice investors.

I have a name for that – Stakeholder Reputation risk and defined it clearly in this post of mine.

The Reputation Institute researches the world’s most reputable companies. By tracking and analyzing stakeholder perceptions, they enable leaders to build better companies. The RepTrak® model analyzes the reputations of companies and is best known as the Forbes-published Global RepTrak 100.

Underlying the model is the RepTrak methodology, the global gold standard for measuring reputation. Learn more at: http://www.reputationinstitute.com.

On their website, the RI shares some key trending components worth noting as best practices for organizations aiming to boost their own reputation.

These include the need for the CEO to communicate authentically and the need to proactively navigate social issues, i.e the need for issues management will increase.

In another study, The Harris Poll RQ®; Amazon took the top spot. The 2018 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient Rankings identifies the 100 most visible companies identified by U.S. consumers and ranks these companies based on their reputation in six different categories: Emotional Appeal, Products & Services, Social Responsibility, Vision & Leadership, Workplace Environment, and Financial Performance.

The Reputation Quotient is “technically designed to understand how a company is perceived in modern culture.” The measure takes the top most visible companies (for good or bad reasons) and evaluates them across six dimensions of corporate reputation attributes to arrive at a corporate reputation ranking. If a company is not on the list, it does not necessarily suggest that they have either good or bad reputation, but rather they didn’t reach a critical level of visibility to be measured. While other models measure reputation in a vacuum, the RQ® starts fresh each year by surveying the public’s top-of-mind awareness of companies who either excelled or faltered in society.

Disney ranked high at No. 5, and Netflix, at No. 21, beat out fellow tech giants Google and Apple, ranked Nos. 28 and 29, respectively. Read the full release in PR Newswire.

The Weinstein Co., which has been embroiled in executive Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual assault scandal, and Takata, with its infamously defective airbags, came in last on the list at Nos. 99 and 100, respectively.

In the Forbes article – The World’s Most Reputable Companies 2018 the example is cited of Apple plummeting 38 spots to No. 58 on the 2018 RT100—a fall explained by various incidents involving ethical behavior, fairness, product value and transparency (alleged battery tampering, encryption conflict etc.)

The Forbes article has some clear and interesting advice for Apple on the matter.

Reputation impacts either positively or negatively in the minds of stakeholders, whether management likes it or not.

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Deon Binneman presenting a Reputation Protection keynote at the BCI World Conference in London with the opening question: “Why is Reputation like a Burning Flame?” More information The BCI World 2017 was the world’s largest conference on Business Continuity.

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The definition of a professional is to adhere to the many standards of your career area (written, unwritten, ethical and otherwise) regardless of where and when or for whom you work.

I recently had to ask delegates to do this.

Please take a moment to reflect on your own behaviour since the workshop:

1. Have you acted as a true professional in your dealings with clients and colleagues?
2. Have you executed your tasks following the maxim: ” We must do it right the first time round”?
3. Have you maintained a professional, friendly, helpful and positive attitude at all times?
4. Have you projected a professional self and company image?
5. Have you conversed with all those you come in contact with – in a professional manner?
6. Are you proud of the work that you have delivered to date?
7. Did you demonstrate competence and integrity whilst on site?
8. Did you carry out all your tasks to the best of your abilities?
9. Can your Company be proud of your actions?
10. In the final analysis, did you provide quality customer service?

Only you can answer these questions. Be honest with yourself. All development starts with self development. It starts with you.

The process of developing yourself is the hallmark of being a true professional.

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And the fallout of the Gupta saga continues – Disgraced Bell Pottinger firm booted out of the UK Public Relations and Communications Association.

Bell Pottinger not only damaged the PR Industry’s #Reputation but it forced their hand – “Bell Pottinger has brought the PR [public relations] and communications industry into disrepute with its actions and it has received the harshest possible sanctions,” Francis Ingham said.

Just yesterday Bell Pottinger chief James Henderson quit ahead of this ruling on the race hate campaign.

It certainly makes a point that of what use is Ethical Standards if we do not apply or act on them?

Ethical breaches can far reaching impacts, and in crises like these CEO’s can depart.

Source: Disgraced Bell Pottinger booted out of industry guild

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