This week Linda Locke from Reputare Consulting shared some thoughts and observations from the Reputation Institute’s Annual Conference in Rio. We thought our readers would be interested in Linda’s insights.<\/p>\n
Notes from the Reputation Institute\u2019s Annual International Conference on Corporate Reputation, Brand Identity and Competitiveness Linda Locke is the principal of Reputare (rep-u-ta-re) Consulting, a corporate reputation consulting practice. She began the firm after a 14-year career at MasterCard International where she oversaw global reputation management as SVP and group head. She is a regular speaker on corporate reputation and recently spoke at the Reputation Institute\u2019s 14th annual international conference on Corporate Reputation, Brand, Identity, and Competitiveness. Its theme was: Q. Why did you go to Rio? <\/strong> Q. Do you think sustainability should be the key focus for a business wishing to rebuild trust?<\/strong> Q. Give me an example of the definitions of sustainability<\/strong> Q. What are the implications of a sustainability strategy for a company wishing to build trust?<\/strong> Q. The Reputation Institute collects some interesting data on reputation and trust. Anything new at the conference?<\/strong> Q. What are the obstacles to a company wishing to build trust?<\/strong> Q. You have spent much of your career focused on financial services. That is an industry with severe trust issues. What do you think that industry needs to do to rebuild trust? Linda Locke, Principal
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\nLinda Locke
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\nThe Sustainability Imperative: A strategic role for reputation management.<\/p>\n
\nA. I thought the theme was very timely given the current business environment. I think the notion of sustainability as a core organizing focus for rebuilding trust is a relevant one, but the definition varies widely.<\/p>\n
\nA. Americans often define sustainability differently than other parts of the world. We tend to think of nature and the environment, whereas many others define it as connected to social justice. But as we coalesce around the idea of sustainability as a broader topic, I think it offers relevant framing for the intersection where what is good for business is also good for society. Outside the US, though, I think many people view the notion of sustainability as a challenge to free market capitalism.<\/p>\n
\nA. One speaker referred to sustainability as another name for democracy, and social and economic justice. One drew a venn diagram showing the intersection of humanism and capitalism.<\/p>\n
\nA. Charles Fombrun, the founder of RI, talked about how corporations wishing to build trust need to think about not what they want to say to the world but what the world wants to hear from us. Also a number of speakers talked about how making money is not an impediment to building trust – and the notion that stakeholders want companies to do both is a key issues.<\/p>\n
\nA. For the first time RI created a global reputation Pulse report that identifies companies with the same global footprint, and then ranked the reputation of those companies. The study released showed that Google and Sony have the best reputations among the 25 or so companies rated. <\/p>\n
\nA, One of the interesting ideas was from Professor Cees van Riel (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University) who talked about the need to reduce fear. He called \u201ccorporate silence\u201d an impediment as managers are often afraid they will lose face if they don\u2019t know all the answers, and people lack courage to raise dissenting voices. Rebuilding trust will require companies to do the right thing, but also to do things right, according to Charles Fombrun, and that\u2019s why internal alignment is a key issue.<\/p>\n
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\nA. When I was in financial services I commissioned quite a bit of research on industry perception studies and what became clear in the US, and clear in many countries around the world is that banks should focus on two primary issues: ethics and fairness, as defined by the end users of banking services.<\/p>\n
\nReputare Consulting
\n314.435.3428
\nlinda.locke@reputareconsulting.com<\/a><\/p>\n