Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

DR. LESLIE GAINES-ROSS is Chief Reputation Strategist for Weber Shandwick, a global public relations firm. She is the architect behind landmark research in the areas of CEO reputation and corporate reputation and the www.reputationRX.com Web site. Before joining Weber Shandwick, Dr. Gaines-Ross was the Communications and Marketing Director for Fortune. Her work has appeared in publications including the Financial Times, Fortune, BusinessWeek, the Times of London, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. She is currently on the Executive Advisory Panel of Corporate Reputation Review, an international journal devoted to the management of corporate reputation.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

We all know reputation matters. But what do you do if your company should lose its reputation? Would you know the distress signals to look for before crisis strikes? Would you know how to begin to restore a damaged reputation and build an enduring and lasting one? Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation does more than show you how to manage a crisis immediately after an incident, disaster or disclosure. It guides you along the long road back to recovering your company’s lost reputation, and preserving its organization and culture.

Written by Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, one of the world’s most widely acclaimed experts on CEO and corporate reputation, this pioneering work takes you through a 12-step reputation recovery model that any company can customize and apply to rebuild and restore its good name―and prevent it from being tarnished in the first place.

Recognizing the tangible value and good-will created by a company’s reputation, Corporate Reputation:

• Explains why reputation, more fragile than ever, matters to a company’s valuation, well-being, and permission to exist
• Isolates a new stage―reputation recovery―that deserves its rightful place in the reputation-building process
• Identifies the most important steps in recovering reputation
• Explores the roles that corporate leaders play in reputation recovery and sustainability
• Provides a practical, time-tested road map for restoring reputation over the long-term

Losing money is a setback for a company, but losing reputation is a major blow. Corporate Reputation shows how you can keep your reputation strong by rallying the support of employees, consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders, so that your company’s most competitive asset remains alive and well.

Aus dem Klappentext

Corporate Reputation

12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation

We all know reputation matters. But what do you do if your company should lose its reputation? Would you know the distress signals to look for before crisis strikes? Would you know how to begin to restore a damaged reputation and build an enduring and lasting one? Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation does more than show you how to manage a crisis immediately after an incident, disaster or disclosure. It guides you along the long road back to recovering your company's lost reputation, and preserving its organization and culture.

Written by Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, one of the world's most widely acclaimed experts on CEO and corporate reputation, this pioneering work takes you through a 12-step reputation recovery model that any company can customize and apply to rebuild and restore its good name and prevent it from being tarnished in the first place.

Recognizing the tangible value and good-will created by a company's reputation, Corporate Reputation:

• Explains why reputation, more fragile than ever, matters to a company's valuation, well-being, and permission to exist

• Isolates a new stage reputation recovery that deserves its rightful place in the reputation-building process

• Identifies the most important steps in recovering reputation

• Explores the roles that corporate leaders play in reputation recovery and sustainability

• Provides a practical, time-tested road map for restoring reputation over the long-term

Losing money is a setback for a company, but losing reputation is a major blow. Corporate Reputation shows how you can keep your reputation strong by rallying the support of employees, consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders, so that your company's most competitive asset remains alive and well.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Corporate Reputation

Jossey-Bass

Chapter One

"In today's world, where ideas are increasingly displacing the physical in the production of economic value, competition for reputation becomes a significant driving force, propelling our economy forward." -Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman

"A risk to its reputation is a threat to the survival of the enterprise." -Peter J. Firestein

A TIPPING POINT

On August 29, 2005, America suffered its biggest disaster since September 11, 2001. Hurricane Katrina hit the north-central Gulf Coast of the United States at 6:10 a.m. with a particularly catastrophic blow to New Orleans. Levees were soon breached, and the South would never be the same.

Thousands of homes were destroyed, leaving tens of thousands of people instantly homeless. As the waters overwhelmed coastal communities, television stations broadcasted dramatic, heart-wrenching images-citizens stranded on roofs waving in desperation to search helicopters, living rooms filled with shattered remains of what were once their homes, and families standing on highways searching for missing loved ones.

Distressing media coverage continued day in and day out, for weeks, and then for months. Even after the waters had long since receded, personal, emotional stories continued to make news. Media accounts of unredeemable flood insurance, undelivered trailers for the homeless, and mounting tales of emotional and physical distress seemed to be never-ending.

The government response at city, state, and federal levels was considered grossly inadequate from the start. Evacuation before and after the hurricane hit was poorly planned and sluggish. Little thought was given to the special needs of the infirm and helpless. Some policemen failed to show up for work. Corpses floated unclaimed amidst the debris in the Lower Ninth Ward. As evacuees squeezed into the Superdome and reports of looting increased at an alarming rate, U.S. President George W. Bush miscalculated the urgency of the crisis and remained vacationing at his Texas ranch.

Several days later, the president visited the suffering port city in a flyover on Air Force One. At an impromptu press conference at the New Orleans airport runway after the flyover, the president praised the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown. However, Brown would ultimately be the target of more criticism in the coming months than perhaps anyone else involved in Katrina's aftermath. Only as it became increasingly clear that FEMA was unable to provide adequate transportation, food, and shelter did President Bush fire Brown and replace him with an experienced emergency disaster relief admiral.

Two years later, the hard-hit Gulf Coast is still getting back on its feet. Although after-effects of Katrina continue to linger, signs of progress are now visible. Permits and licenses for New Orleans vendors for the 2007 Mardi Gras were up 310 percent from 2006. A Kaiser Family Foundation 2007 study based on New Orleans residents found that some progress was being made in restoring basic services, reopening schools, launching new businesses, and growing its population.

Hurricane Katrina will forever stand as an example of how the American government failed to address one of the country's most serious modern-day catastrophes. Most every American agreed that assistance for Hurricane Katrina victims was received too little, too late. The majority of Americans (58 percent) in a CBS News poll disapproved of the government's handling of relief efforts one week after the hurricane hit. Response to Katrina by the federal government, FEMA, and state and local government was regarded by most Americans as poor (77, 70, and 70 percent, respectively). Equally disturbing, Americans believed that the disaster's response had worsened the already battered overseas image of the United States. Worse still, the American public was left with the impression that the administration's response to the deadly hurricane reflected a lack of compassion and management ability.

Hurricane Katrina had a powerfully negative impact on perceptions of President Bush and his cabinet. The government's missteps served as a negative tipping point for the Bush administration's reputation. Its poor handling of the disaster took on epic proportions and was viewed as intrinsic to the core of the administration's character. Each mistake generated a whole new set of problems. It was not just the administration's failure to anticipate and react in time to the deadly hurricane, but also the magnitude of this failure that led to a material loss in the president's and his administration's reputation.

The traditional rally of support for a president during the aftermath of a national emergency such as the September 11 terrorist attacks was nowhere to be found. Coupled with growing dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq, popular support for the administration reached a point of no return. Unfortunately for President Bush, the administration's past and future actions would thereafter be viewed through the lens of another devastating event.

With no appropriate and effective reputation recovery program for the handling of Hurricane Katrina and the continuing violence in Iraq, the November 2006 midterm Senate, House, and gubernatorial elections were all but preordained. Both houses of Congress gained Democratic majorities, thereby demonstrating just how irreparably damaged the administration's reputation, and that of the political party it represented, had become.

This is not to say that local political issues did not play a role in Hurricane Katrina's devastation. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco were both heavily criticized for not ordering New Orleans residents to evacuate early enough. Emergency evacuation plans were implemented less than one day before the hurricane hit, and many people were unable to find safe routes out of the city.

REPUTATION ADVANTAGE

Reputation matters. Reputation means how positively, or negatively, a company or similar institution is perceived by its key stakeholders-the people or entities that the company or institution relies on for its success. For many for-profit companies, typical stakeholders might include customers, employees, suppliers, or financial analysts. For governments or political entities such as the Bush and Blair administrations, stakeholders are, above all, the electorate.

As described in greater detail in the next chapter, reputation loss can strike any company or group. Unfortunately for many companies that have built great reputations, the much-touted adage "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" holds true. Stakeholders can lose confidence in even the most highly admired companies that fail them. Although it may take a catastrophe before stakeholders ultimately lose faith in the great branded companies, it does happen, and then the fall from grace can be fast and furious. Hubris has no place in business. All are susceptible to reputation damage.

If its reputation is strong, a company in crisis is granted the benefit of the doubt by its stakeholders. They expect companies to do the right thing. Even when inevitable mistakes are committed, stakeholders will afford...