The Wall Street Journal had a clever article this week about how companies are increasingly using navigational terms to explain the challenges they are facing in this uncertain economy. Company spokespeople are fast using terms such as headwinds, tacking, winds of change, tailwinds, rough seas and ill winds. I have been guilty of using these types of terms too.  In my reputation work, I prefer medical terms to describe reputation events. Here are a few I like to use. 

• Surgery is just one step on the road to recovery (Got this from the Economist)
• The company is out of the operating room—though not in the clear.
• The long-term prognosis remains uncertain.
• The company looks healthier.
• More surgery may be inevitable
• Must get the company off the ventilator and breathing back on its own.
• The company is out of intensive care.
• The company’s arteries are clogged.

However, my favorite health-related description which I use in my book is as follows:  

• The book is not merely about the initial emergency response.  Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps  to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation is not just about what happens in the emergency room but more about what happens to the patient after the trauma has been diagnosed, life-saving intervention has been made, vital signs have stabilized, and the patient is out of immediate danger.  It is also about post-operative care and the long rehabilitation before a patient can cautiously begin life anew.

I thought this was an insightful statement about online reputation. It was mentioned in a post by Chris Abraham who was quoting Forget Publicists, All the Cool Kids Have Online Reputation Managers. Abraham says that “online reputation management is apparently the new black.” Sure seems that way to me too.

Goes back to that wonderful article in Wired by Clive Thompson about Google being a reputation management system, not a search engine. 

To digress, I read in another article somewhere that corporate responsibility is the new India. I guess this phraseology is catchy. Perhaps I should say something clever like reputation recovery is the new green. Doesn’t have the same ring to it. Worth a try.

My new book is out officially today (as I hinted last night).  It is titled Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation.

There is more information on a dedicated site — www.corporatereputation12steps.com. It is based on our discovery that the corporate reputation “stumble rate” continues to rise.  Over three-quarters (79 percent) of the world’s number-one most admired companies lost their crowns over the past five years in their respective industries. While reputation loss may now be inevitable, my new book offers a realistic roadmap to reputation recovery that can help any leader stabilize and regenerate a company’s most competitive asset.

It is pretty simple: recent corporate crises have demonstrated that a company’s reputation can be destroyed in seconds. A mishandled response, inappropriate act, product tampering, or poorly timed financial disclosure all have the power to instantly tarnish a respected reputation. As I see it, the well-managed and reputation-conscious company need not stand defenseless when faced with a damaged reputation.

Tomorrow we officially launch my new book on safeguarding and recovering reputation. All the details will be here as well as on our Weber Shandwick’s home page. It’s exciting and I invite you to check it out. Couldn’t be more timely, don’t you think?

Am off and running to Switzerland tomorrow for business meetings. Therefore I wanted to get you some reputation news before I pack my bags.

 I just was handed a wonderful report from AON on risk management. The survey is among 320 respondent organizations that have revenues of nearly $1 billion or more across many sectors and all regions of the globe. The findings are astounding as to what it says about reputation. Global business executives were asked about the top 10 risks they see today. Here they are in rank order:

Reputation damage reigns at the top. As the AON report says, “Damage to reputation is an enterprise -wide event that can lead to negative publicity, a decline in market share and the inability to recruit and retain top talent.” And that’s only half of it. Companies with eroding reputation lose customers, investors, easy access to new markets, ability to charge a premium, goodwill from the community, benefit of the doubt in time of crisis, and the list goes on.

Even more remarkable, reputation damage is the greatest threat no matter what region of the world. The Global Risk Management Survey also found that few companies are prepared for reputation damage.

AON, thanks for this report. I can use these findings in many places for my talks and writings. It is nice to have what I believe so strongly be confirmed.