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Though reputation, like trust, is not a new concept in business, there has been an explosion of interest around the subject since the mid-1990s, observes Dov Seidman in How , recently out as a reprint from Wiley India. He rues, however, that a fair amount of the current interest in reputation revolves around creating and managing corporate reputation as an extension of brand awareness in the marketplace, an effort colonised by public relations and corporate communications departments and consultants.
Conditions of transparency
The problem with external approaches to corporate reputation and trust, as the author explains, is that they look at reputation as a silo to be managed, a story to be spun. “This thinking, with its roots in fortress capitalism, stands little chance of success today. To truly thrive in the inter-networked world, business and the people who labour in business need to find a way to operate within the new conditions of transparency and interconnectedness…”
The book cites an apt quote of McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner, that transparency means people have a very clear look at your behaviour, and that they now make their own determination of whether or not your behaviour adds value, whether it is significant relative to your success, and whether or not the behaviours are part of the integrity and ongoing culture of a company.
What the talented look for
The author mentions an insight from Jeffrey Kindler, former CEO of Pfizer, that really talented people are inspired to work in a place that gives them opportunity and resources to grow and develop as a person and make meaningful contributions; to work for and with people who share their belief system, their professional aspirations, and their objectives for what the enterprise can accomplish; and to work in an enterprise that is somehow making the world a better place in some dimension that is important to them.
To those who may like to discount Kindler's thoughts because of the $34-million severance package he took, it can be educative to read about the difference that reputation makes at entry-level recruiting. The book reports the finding of a survey of about 800 MBAs from 11 leading North American and European schools, that more than 97 per cent said they were willing to forgo, on average, 14 per cent of their expected income to work for an organisation with a better reputation for getting its ‘hows' right.
Echoing the view of Charles Fombrun of the Reputation Institute that reputation is not about spin but is the merging of what is real with what people think about you, the author notes that the brain is exceptionally good at recognising conflicting messages.
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