The Hindu Business Line : Holding aloft corporate reputations

Akshay Vyas is a professional in marketing communications and in his experience spanning 17 years has been considered a rock star in every one of the three companies he has worked with. About four weeks ago, he accepted an offer that was the envy of his friends. He was to join a Bangalore-based company early next month. But, instead of talking to packers and movers, Akshay is now talking to head hunters and preparing to circulate his resume. Ever since he started telling p eople about his new job, he has heard disturbing stories about the company’s trade practices and unethical business dealings. And although there is no way he can personally determine the veracity of these stories, Akshay has decided to walk away from the job.

Attracting and retaining talent is inextricably connected to a company’s reputation. And corporate communications when handled with flair can help create a respected brand image by managing perceptions and building a credible reputation. Corporate communications is no longer about having one or two people write a monthly newsletter. Today, it is about running a successful company, building a trustworthy brand, making a brand promise and living that promise. It is about hiring the best talent and retaining it to build a sustainable long-term business; it is about building trust in the community and a signature corporate culture within the company.

All this is real hard work; a company’s culture and reputation is built over time on confidence and reliability and tremendous effort is required to do this successfully in a sustained fashion with quality and consistency.

Communications strategy

A company’s communication strategy should ensure that the dissemination of corporate news is timely, proactive, and effective in reflecting the company’s actions and practices. It should proactively identify and manage ripples that have the potential to hurt the company. Spokespersons for the company should speak in the same voice and in order to keep the messaging consistent across all stakeholders – staff, suppliers, customers, government, media, and shareholders – key messages should be developed and endorsed by senior management.

True stories should be told about staff successes, the company’s people practices, employee engagement and development initiatives, and corporate responsibility programmes. Such stories will successfully generate goodwill and a favourable opinion of the brand, both in the community and internally amongst its staff.

If enough trust is built in the brand, a company will successfully sail over rough patches without damaging its reputation. A crisis communications plan should be kept ready for such times. Transparency and honesty is always the best approach — even in tough situations. Poor communication practices not only have the potential to damage an organisation’s reputation, but can also hurt the company’s performance because of a lack of clarity and consistency in what staff and other stakeholders — customers, employees, media, shareholders, investors, government regulators, vendors, suppliers, non-profit organisations and trade bodies — need to be told. Today, stakeholders look for more than profits and service from a company — they look for ethical business practices and a good reputation in society. In the era of the Internet, it is very easy to find and disseminate potentially damaging information about a company. Corporates that are not adept at managing their communications and those that resort to ad hoc means of managing it, run a very real risk of damaging their credibility and reputation and of losing employee trust in their brand.

(The writer is Head – Corporate Affairs, Scope International Pvt. Ltd.)