Rebuilding Reputation In Financial Services

Having just spoken at a conference in the city entitled 'Rebuilding Reputation in Financial Services', I was heartened by the willingness of many communications professionals in the sector to share best practices in this current climate and to listen to and discuss the lessons that could be learned from the events of the past eighteen months. Their dedication remains unquestionable.

Of far greater concern was the number of professionals who seem still to operate in a separate, almost isolated function within the larger business. Surely they too must change. As modern practitioners in a new era, they are now an ambassador for the very valuable asset of reputation and must work from within the organisation, across board level and each area of operation to maximise the reputation credentials of the business. In financial services, more than any other sector, there seems a very clear, almost urgent need for communications practitioners to embrace all the elements comprising reputation, to realise the value that the asset holds and vitally, to assist boards to build reputational equity. It seems that the real learning and the opportunity for the financial services sector to rebuild its reputation among, largely skeptical, stakeholders lies with the communications professionals who must lead the change and build reputation from within.