Organisation Reputation

Reputation has a significant impact on the well being of every organisation. Through building relationships internally and externally, organisations are able to connect, communicate, listen and act on feedback. Reputation can inform, influence perceptions, behaviour and effect change.

In times of austerity, communications investments may not be given the proper priority. Many companies will be under pressure to reduce budgets and to suspend/postpone activities that require external expertise. The reality is, communications should not stop when budgets are tight. Indeed, communications invariably needs should grow - paricularly if there are existing efficiency proposals to support, or if businesses are looking for new and cost-effective ways to deliver their goods and services.

Reputation Matters
What you do, what you say and what others say about you can impact your growth, development and most importantly your profit. Public Relations is defined as "the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics."

Public relations is about managing your reputation. From the written word to the 140 character tweet on twitter, from your brand positioning to your marketing collateral. The way you present your business impacts on your reputation and how you are perceived. Reputation is not just about pushing out the odd press release, its about having a two way conversation. Its about researching, engaging and informing. Reputation is about using traditional media alongside social media (Facebook, Linkedin and twitter etc), in order to convey your message and influence.

Branded spin and smoke and mirrors public relations today couldn't be further away from the outdated view. In contrast businesses today, crave transparency and consulting as the modern view. With the introduction of the internet, there is nowhere to hide. Reputations are therefore shaping the culture of organisations and how they think...not just adding the last minute finishes of gloss.

A great reputation is a hard-won and highly valuable commercial asset. Underpinning opportunities for growth. A poor reputation, on the other hand, always wounds and sometimes can lead to the downfall of a brand. A sudden crisis, badly handled, can cause a previously strong reputation to collapse and threaten future profitability. Businesses must take reputation seriously and have it as an agenda item. But whilst it seems inconceivable that any business would leave the fate of one of their most valuable (yet vulnerable assets to chance), there are many organisations which spend less time on reputation risks and crisis preparedness.

The objective of public relation agencies, must be to ensure company's reputation are protected and that communication needs are met. In ways that are effecient, effecctive and in support of the organisation's goals. Measuring the outcome of public relations, demonstrating the positive benefits of investing in reputation, will undoubetdly prove valuable and provide an excellent platform for future conversations.

If business owners take the time to identify the potential reputation risks associated with their particular industry, document a robust crisis communications process and test it thoroughly, they would get the chance to make their mistakes in the privacy of the training room, rather than under the spotlight of a real incident.