The Reputation Gurus
April 18th, 2007 by KierstenWelcome to the Reputation Gurus’ first blog posting!
This is where anyone with an interest in reputation management or corporate reputation should turn to find out the latest thinking on the topic. This blog will be dedicated to the thinking that our corporate reputation experts at GCI Group share with our clients, who are companies of all sizes, all around the world.
Our overall approach centers around the idea that building and fostering a company’s reputation should focus on 10 key components that comprise a company’s image, including (in no specific order):
- Financial performance
- Customer experience
- Employee satisfaction
- Corporate social responsibility
- Innovation/R&D
- Products & services
- Industry leadership
- Executive team strength
- Company values
- How the company responds to issues and crises that it faces.
Some companies will be stronger in some areas, and weaker in others — and it’s the job of the communications professional to help the company determine what’s truly in the corporate DNA — what is at the heart of the company — and begin telling those stories in multiple ways to multiple audiences.
At the same time, the rules of our business are changing and evolving — largely because of the Internet and Digital media, but also because of many other factors. We live in a smaller world, and what happens in one region of the world impacts the other region — especially in the reputation space. As an American living in London, this is clear to me each and every day.
So, please tune in regularly. I won’t be the only voice on this topic … I’ve invited many others to join me in contributing to this dialogue, and we expect it to be a rich dialogue that allows us to share our thinking but also to learn from others along the way.