Every decision-maker understands that beyond financial necessities, a multitude of forces impact a company. Each of these influences the reputation, and in the public sphere, new challenges continually emerge that a company must respond to – thus, focusing on reputation becomes a crucial aspect of a firm's management.
The complexity of this requirement demands the knowledge and experience of proven experts.
In today's economic, social, and political environment, reputational risks are higher than ever – but so are the opportunities that arise from prudent reputation management for the value of a company.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are now globally recognized benchmarks, especially for publicly traded companies. Investors, employees, media, and the public align with these factors. They must be integrated into corporate strategy and withstand continuous, holistic monitoring – this approach also minimizes liability risks and potential accusations of greenwashing.
Ethical and moral postulates increasingly influence the integrity of individuals and products, as well as the economic environment of companies. While intangible, they hold exponential potential for outrage, especially due to the power of social media. Anticipating and continuously monitoring potential risk areas can help avoid costly surprises – coupled with the necessity of maintaining integrity within the company.
Shareholders, particularly institutional investors, are naturally subject to this new zeitgeist, often finding themselves under public scrutiny. They analyze potential investments in light of their own reputational risks, sometimes aided by their experts, who exert significant influence on investment decisions. These experts often face the pressure to justify their roles, sometimes responding by overemphasizing reputational risks.
Civil society bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have grown to be equal partners in dialogue with governmental and political actors or institutional investors. Companies increasingly value their expertise and understand their influence in the public sphere. Hence, the demand to institutionalize dialogue – to lend more weight to their own arguments. The goal in reputation management is always to also control interpretation.
As conveyors of values, the media – electronic, print, online – play a significant role in the resonance chamber of public opinion. The increasing number of distribution channels and the ubiquitous availability of technology, along with the strong ideologization and tabloidization of the media, lead to a substantial influence on the reputation of institutions and individuals. The online-first approach, which disseminates news and opinions almost in real-time, intensifies this effect. For reputation management, this is a challenging mix that can only be managed with continuous strategic communication with opinion leaders in the media and anticipative monitoring of risk topics – always aiming to maintain control over the narrative.
Thanks to digitalization, even one-person media brands can have a significant impact on perception, especially as fake news spreads rapidly. Overall, this means that professional handling of sources and fact-checking must become a discipline in reputation management.
