The Reputation Playbook

A winning formula to help CEOs protect corporate reputation in the digital economy

Jennifer Janson

• Publisher: Harriman House
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780857194404
• Edition: 1

Why do some companies have a seemingly flawless reputation while others constantly fight a losing battle?Maybe you've always kept social media at arm's length, but the thought of a crisis unfolding online keeps you awake at night. Or you are aware you should be giving clearer direction to your team in the area of reputation building, but aren't sure what to demand or what questions to ask. If so, then The Reputation Playbook is for you.The fundamental principles of reputation-building haven't changed for decades, but the advent of social media means transparency around how a business acts has. News, good or bad, now travels at internet speed, so to protect and enhance its reputation a business needs to be prepared to respond in real time, whether to customer interaction, news stories or operational errors. And as the leader of your business, the reputation buck stops with you. Your team expects, and needs, you to take the lead.You don't need to know the how when it comes to using social media, but you do need to know why it is critical that it's on your radar. So you won't find instructions on how to use the various social media platforms in The Reputation Playbook. You will find a lively and insightful examination of how social media affects corporate reputation-building, filled with practical advice and punctuated with real-life examples from the companies that are doing it right - and those that have got it wrong.Jennifer Janson has gathered data and thoughts from the world's leading thinkers on corporate reputation and also provides a framework for evaluating and mitigating your business' reputational risks. Most important, the Playbook tells you what questions to ask of those around you to ensure your business is building a strong reputation, and minimising the risk of reputational damage, long before a crisis arises.It is time to think about how your business reputation is affected by social media. All you need to get you started is The Reputation Playbook.

Section Three: Building a Reputation Strategy

We’ve looked at the rise of corporate reputation and the implications of social media. We’ve also explored how to build a company’s purpose and core values into your culture, with a focus on behaviour.

This section starts to get a lot more practical. I will address ways to exploit and improve your reputation by taking a good look at who you are and how you can use your personality and tone of voice – as a company – to contribute to your desired reputation. We’ll look at the opportunities created by building and engaging with communities, by creating compelling content and we’ll also start to identify how you might use social media (and if it is worth looking at, based on your target audiences). I’ve also included a chapter on handling a crisis – when it comes to social media, the potential for a crisis to start or spread online is the single biggest issue keeping many of the CEOs I speak to awake at night.

This section also provides insight into the practicalities of creating a reputation strategy and making it work. As with any good strategy, reputation management needs careful planning. It is critical to understand where you are as a business and to get alignment on where you want to be. I highly recommend that you spend time thinking about the questions I raise in Chapter 9 and discussing them with your senior team. Ultimately the plan is going to be as good as the thinking that goes into it, so don’t shortchange yourself at this vital first step.

Chapter 9: Putting a Reputation Strategy in Place

WHAT IS A REPUTATION STRATEGY?

As CEO you have a vision for your business, underpinned by a particular ethos, and a message you want to convey. Communicating that vision to your most senior team with passion, energy and enthusiasm is easy when you do it in person – it’s not difficult to get the people you work with directly to buy in. However, getting that vision and the company’s desired reputation woven into the fabric of the organisation at every level is more difficult and requires a well thought-through strategy. Starting with the cultural focus we outlined in the previous section is critical.

A reputation strategy is simply the articulation of what you want to be known for and how you intend to get there. It pulls all the elements we’ve already addressed together and adds communications to the mix.

A reputation strategy must be authentic to your brand, well documented and well communicated. Similar to any other strategy, it will include an analysis of how things stand today, and objectives and tasks for the future. Building a strong reputation takes time and requires that everyone in the organisation pulls together in exactly the same direction – your strategy will set out how this is going to be done.

WHY DOES REPUTATION STRATEGY MATTER?

Without a reputation strategy the risk of catastrophic damage is high and the potential for profitably leveraging your reputation is low. Think back to the Maine & Atlantic case study we addressed earlier, where an effective strategy was apparently absent. Particularly in today’s media landscape, reputation is the currency that drives a business’s success or contributes to its demise. The business strategy dictates what people are going to achieve, the reputation strategy reinforces how they are going to act. It clearly defines what behaviour you expect from those in your organisation and from the organisation as a whole.

DIRECT THE BEHAVIOUR OF YOUR ORGANISATION

The best communications plan is unable to compensate for a poor business plan (you can’t spin your way to victory), but a solid business plan can be greatly enhanced by good communications if the two walk hand-in-hand. Social media makes this truer than ever. Your reputation will only survive and thrive if what you’re doing is what you’re saying – if you’re walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

Putting a reputation strategy in place at the centre of the organisation – and requiring everyone to work in accordance with it – is essential. Your business can only act in accordance with its purpose and values if there is a reputation strategy that defines how the business should behave and communicate. When you have this strategy in position it gives your communications team something to work to as they communicate with the outside world and, more importantly, as they steer the culture of the organisation on the inside.

Harold Burson, founder of one of the world’s largest PR agencies, Burson-Marsteller, suggests communications teams don’t look inwards enough. He talks about the changing nature of PR and points out that there has been too much emphasis on the communications aspect of the discipline rather than on its ability to change behaviour. Over time, the public relations discipline has narrowed, becoming focused almost entirely on communicating to the world. The PR department has seemingly willingly accepted the role of the company’s soapbox.

In my view, the PR department’s real (and far more valuable) role is to influence how people within the organisation consistently behave and by so doing build a company’s reputation. But to achieve this we need to know where the leaders are taking the business. It is this comprehensive knowledge that enables leaders inside the company to develop their strategies. They can’t write their marketing plans, product plans, IT plans and so on unless they understand the purpose, values and goals of the organisation.

It starts with culture

“Banks need to go much further [than repairing their balance sheets] if public trust in our industry is to be rebuilt. This requires cultural change. For me, this starts with having a common purpose and values that serve as a foundation for everything else that you want to achieve. There can be no choice between doing well financially and behaving responsibly in business.”

Antony Jenkins, CEO of Barclays Bank

Have you communicated your desired reputation for the business in a succinct way? A business can only communicate the right messages if they are driven from the top. The best PR practitioners communicate with the CEO and look at the company’s reputation as a whole. This is not simply how you are communicating and what you are communicating, but why you are communicating. Does the company’s behaviour support both of these areas?

A case in point was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s announcement that he was going into competition with Wonga, the high-profile UK payday loan company, by building up Britain’s network...