Before you can market a product or service, you need to take the teapot lid off and look at what it is that is withholding you from marketing and growing business success. That will ensure that the foundations are strong and the marketing and eventual reputation will grow in leaps and bounds.

The problem is that many organisations participate in various surveys that tackle the multifaceted issue of reputation. They then get results that do not always give them the full picture of what is not working.

About a year ago I saw the results of a survey conducted at a client that indicated that their creativity and innovation presence was lagging. Lagging in what?

To get to the real reasons, a lot more detective work is necessary. The questions that a skilled management consultant would ask is different to that asked by a traditional survey. A consultant would probe and probe until he or she identified the root cause. Only then, can measures be implemented to enhance creativity and innovation in the organisation.

So, what is stifling innovation in the organization? Is it structural, process issues, the corporate culture or competencies of the people?

Let’s just quickly define what a competency is. A Competency is having the required knowledge, skill and attitude to do a certain task at a certain standard level.

In my experience, creativity can start at that level. Most people upon asked to do an exercise in which they have to list the names of five people, dead or alive, they believe to be very creative, would seldom put their own names on that list.

In few organisations, a staff suggestion and idea scheme operates at an optimum level (maybe I will blog more on that ).

Anyway, here is a formula that you can apply to changing your organisation’s reputation.

Change == D+V+S+C

For change to happen a business has to:

• Be dissatisfied with its present state (Are you happy where you are on the World’s Most Admired Company Survey? The Best Employer Survey, etc?)
• Have a clear Vision of where it wants to go (Do you know what makes your company unique? Do you understand what drives reputation in your industry?)
• Take the necessary steps to get there (Planning)
• Create enough energy (or tension) to overpower the COST required (in terms of money, time and energy) to make the change happen.

Simple formula, but as one speaker once said: ‘’Business is just about two things, Buying and selling and a millions things in between!’’

Depends on how much you value your Reputation. I know Warren Buffet does.