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.

Q. What holds between 20% to 80% of your market value?

A. The reputation of a company. On the conservative side, reputation is "worth 20% of a company's turnover. For consumer brands or services, particularly financial services, it shoots to 80% of market value.* Accountants provide a general measure of around one third of annual revenue.

What's Your Legacy?

The launch of Legacy Together takes place in London on 16th September, the first programme of its kind in the UK to assist organisations to identify and deliver the legacy they wish to leave.
www.legacytogether.com.

Introducing the triple bottom line

The economic downturn means that share price is no longer the single measure of success. Dr Kevin Money, associate professor at the John Madejski Centre for Reputation was kind enough to send me a paper which he'd written with colleagues. In it, he states that statistics in annual reports and share price are retrospective, and do not provide any clue to future performance.

Financial performance is no longer the only element of success required by stakeholders. Now organisations must evidence their social and environmental credentials. They must earn a licence to operate from the public and from other stakeholders and provide sound credentials in the area of sustainability to prove they are responsible and committed to the long term. This new era is seeing stakeholders demand new measurements. Financial, social and environmental measurements

Welcome to the triple bottom line

6 tips to enhancing reputation

I'm just researching my CIPR Chartership paper and came across these great tips
1 Make reputation a priority in your business
2 Work across functions to align on risk and opportunity
3 Adopt a common model
4 Engage actively with stakeholders
5 Build a community of critical activists
6 Demonstate an openness to discuss tough business decisions