The Reputation Economy is Global Reality but Few Companies Are Equipped to Thrive In It, Says New White Paper from Reputation Institute

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Reputation Journey

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 28, 2012

There is broad consensus among business executives that what an organization stands for is at least as important as what it sells, and that a firm’s culture and values have eclipsed shareholder value as a leading indicator of sustainable business in the 2010s. However, a new white paper from Reputation Institute, the world’s leading reputation management consultancy, argues that the results of its first global Chief Reputation Officer survey indicate most companies are still not organized for success in the new Reputation Economy.

Reputation Institute undertook a global survey of chief reputation officers in the first quarter of 2012, asking CEOs, CMOs, and CCOs at 318 major companies around the world questions about how their company manages and integrates reputation into decision-making. Their responses suggest that although most executives now agree that reputation is crucial to business success, only a minority have learned how to manage their company’s reputation in a structured and systematized way.

“The feedback from the inaugural global CRO survey, alongside the dialogue that took place at our annual conference in Milan last month, clearly indicates that while companies are identifying the need for a systematic approach to reputation management, they acknowledge that they are closer to the beginning of the journey than the end,” said Kasper Ulf Nielsen, executive partner at Reputation Institute. “Organizational structures are changing more slowly than stakeholder demand, which in turn forces leading companies to change not only what they say but how they behave in order to preserve their license to operate in these uncertain times.”

The Reputation Management Journey
Reputation Institute has learned throughout its 25 years of advising global organizations that every company finds itself somewhere along a 5-Phase Reputation Management Journey – whether Exploring reputation for the first time (Phase 1) or Integrating cross-stakeholder reputation insights into business-planning and enterprise strategy (Phase 5).

Phase 1 vs Phase 5 Companies
The distinctions between Early Phase (Phases 1 and 2) and Advanced Phase (Phases 4-5) companies could not be clearer. Advance Phase companies are 2-3 times more likely to:
1.    Understand reputation across stakeholders and markets
2.    Understand specific business impact of reputation
3.    Have an internal council or steering committee to champion action
4.    Have senior executives accountable for corporate reputation KPIs
5.    Have reputation integrated into long-term enterprise vision, goals, and priorities

Other highlights from the Global CRO white paper include:

•     Most respondents (83 percent) believe we live in a Reputation Economy, a world where who you are matters more to consumers than what you sell. Yet few companies (32 percent) are ready to meet that challenge (defined as measuring reputation as a KPI annually.)
•     Companies with established reputation strategies communicate more with stakeholders than early phase companies. This is both a quality and quantity advantage for Phase 4-5 companies who subscribe to the notion that “the best defense is a good offense.”
•     CRO’s status and confidence rises as their company’s sophistication in reputation management improves, but the vast majority of companies (87 percent) are still in the exploration phases 1-3 of the reputation journey.

About Reputation Institute
Reputation Institute is the world’s leading corporate reputation consulting firm. Founded in 1997, with a presence in more than 30 countries, we are the pioneer in reputation management. Through systematic research and analysis, Reputation Institute supports companies in building comprehensive strategies and making operational decisions that are designed to align stakeholders with corporate objectives, creating tangible economic value. Reputation Institute enables leaders to make business decisions that build and protect reputation capital and drive competitive advantage. Visit http://www.reputationinstitute.com for more information.

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