Posts Tagged ‘CEOs’

What do CEOs think about the importance of the corporate vs. product brand? Luckily we were able to discern the answer when we looked at this group in our recent survey on The Company Behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust.  96% of CEOs said that the corporate or parent brand is as important as the product brand. That is nearly 100% agreement.  Basically, they have little doubt of the corporate brands’ importance in this new age. Why would that be? Executives –across all four markets in our study– agreed that the primary impetus for the rising equality between corporate  brand and product brand is the reputation halo that the parent company brings to its products. Some might call it the reputation premium. Notably, the CEOs in our study cite the bottom-line as their number one reason for equalizing corporate and product brand. They essentially say that there is greater efficiency in marketing and communicating one overall corporate brand rather than several different brands. The concept of an “enterprise” brand that communicates the company’s reputation and product brands’ reputation all at once gets underscored in our new study.

  America’s Most Reputable Companies list is out from Reputation Institute. Just saw an article in PRWeek. And read the RI press release for more detail.  The list also appears in Forbes. In addition to reading about the various companies that made the best and least best (polite way of saying it) reputation list, several interesting facts came out that immediately drew my attention. They are below.

• The survey found companies with excellent reputations were 2.5 times more likely to put their CEO in charge of positioning and telling the corporate story. This is music to my ears. Today, CEOs are the content providers of the highest order. Great to have another source say this besides us.
• Highly-regarded companies are 15 times more likely to manage reputation across company functions. Reputation is of enterprise importance and not just a PR issue. Good point.
• Highly-regarded companies were 1.5 times more likely to include reputation metrics as part of their senior management dashboard, and 1.7 times more likely to seek outside assistance with corporate reputation management.

I was very pleased to see RI asking these questions which only add to the reputation library of information. Thanks to the RI team!

 A few interesting reputationally-related items crossed my desk or should I say my network.

First, David Larcker and Antastasia Zakolyukina of Stanford University analyzed 30,000 conference calls between 2003 and 2007 to determine if the Q & A period offered clues to when CEOs are being deceptive. They reviewed financial restatements to determine whether CEOs or CFOs were misleading or being untruthful.  The researchers believe that these top execs know if they are manipulating results and clues can be uncovered in their spontaneous comments in the Q&A session. They based their findings on “deception detection research” — a field I had not heard of!  Who would have known. The findings are relevant to those of us in the communications business since it is all about words. It is hard not to recall former CEO of Enron Jeff Skilling cursing on the phone during an investor call near the end. Cursing is probably another telltale sign. So what are the cues they found in this robustly-researched undertaking?  The Economist summed it up best so will borrow their words: 

“Deceptive bosses, it transpires, tend to make more references to general knowledge (“as you know…”), and refer less to shareholder value (perhaps to minimise the risk of a lawsuit, the authors hypothesise). They also use fewer “non-extreme positive emotion words”. That is, instead of describing something as “good”, they call it “fantastic”. The aim is to “sound more persuasive” while talking horsefeathers. When they are lying, bosses avoid the word “I”, opting instead for the third person. They use fewer “hesitation words”, such as “um” and “er”, suggesting that they may have been coached in their deception.”

Congrats to David Larcker who I met a few years back when I was researching the impact of CEO reputation on corporate reputation. David was at Wharton and he was able to help me demonstrate that it was indeed impactful.

Second, I just browsed a  report that came across my desk from MIT Sloan Management Review on The Business of Sustainability which was conducted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). It is their first annual study and provides some very interesting results among 1500 global corporate executives. Overall they found that 92% of this executive class believes their companies are addressing sustainability issues now and less than 25% reported that their companies have reduced their commitment during these tough economic times. Reputation-wise, these executives said that the greatest benefit to company sustainability commitment was “improved company or brand image.”  This benefit far exceeded other pluses such as cost savings, competitive advantage, employee satisfaction, etc.

Third, this funny subject line came through on my email at work.  “Why do business executives feel doubtful, even tired?” It just struck a chord with me. I think it describes most people I work with these days….isn’t everyone in business tired? My favorite question to ask people I meet is how many hours do you work on the weekend? I am always trying to place myself on a spectrum of weekends spent working. So far, I have not figured out how people turn it off.

When asked whether CEOs take as much action as they should to protect their company reputations, CEOs came back with a resounding yes in research by NYSEEuroNext. A full 76% believe that they are on top of safeguarding their reputation. The remaining 24% probably thinks they are not doing enough which is also a good thing.  However, considering that it is the job of the CEO to be the company’s reputation guardian, why would 2010′s figure be lower than what CEOs believed in 2006 (84%) about being ready to defend their reputations.  Could it be that CEOs recognize that as prepared as they may be, there is always something around the corner that will surprise them.  They are not as confident perhaps as they were several years ago when they may have thought that reputation protection was about branding well and getting their Web site up to par. I think the past year has humbled the best of them.

How rewarding can the job of CEO be afterall?  Research by NYSEEuroNext and ORC asked global CEOs this very question and they were not asking about compensation. That’s a whole other subject.

Turns out that 50% of CEOs in 2010 say that the job is more rewarding now vs. three years ago.  This is a nice lift from one year ago in 2009 when 38% said it was more rewarding.  Apparently 2008 was a better year since 60% of CEOs said it was more rewarding than three years earlier. The bounce back in 2010, however,  is heartening considering how tough the job has become and how bad the economy has been altogether. Alas, lets not overlook that one out of two CEOs this year are not chiming in that the job is more rewarding vs. three years ago.  One of the reasons may be that a full 97% or just about every CEO says that the job is more time-consuming that it was three years ago and this high figure has not changed over the past five years. No matter what year, the CEO job never ends just because it is the weekend or post dinner hours. The world has been turned on its head and the job is undeniably 24/7.

Interestingly, non-US CEOs see the job as more rewarding than US CEOs (62% vs. 40%), a pattern that has held for five years. What do non-US CEOs know that US CEOs don’t know about enjoying their lives? Perhaps they worry less about their reputations but I don’t think that is the case. Perhaps non-US CEOs don’t jump online every minute to read all the uncivil comments that are written about them by dissatisfied customers or former employees? Or perhaps non-US CEOs have more time off on vacation to recharge their batteries and unwind.  Since more non-US CEOs have separate chairmen, perhaps they get to share some of the responsibility of leadership which makes the job nore rewarding vs. here in the US where the trend is still predominantly CEOs and chairmen being one and the same. Would require deeper analysis but is a thought.

Let’s hope that 2011 shows a continued trend to adding some more enjoyment into the job — especially because CEO leadership does impact us all, one way or the other. We certainly don’t need strung out leaders at the helm.

[Not sure why I chose a hammock as my graphic but I thought that perhaps CEOs need to kick back alittle in August]

   Who would have thought that who you lunch with matters? A new way to pick stocks is revealed in BusinessWeek. Research found that if you bet on the CEOs that President Obama has dined with since taking office, you’d be outperforming the S&P 500 index. The six luncheon set of CEOs he has met with outperformed the S&P by more than two percentage points.  The article points out the the President is obviously only going to dine with winners, not losers or scandalized companies, so it makes commonsense.  Although this strategy for stockpicking  is not recommended, it is hard not to think that there is some smart thinking behind the CEO luncheon invitations.  Just get out your list of most admired CEOs and see if they are dining at the White House and away you go.

Forget that economics or business degree. This may be a lot easier.

  Accenture just completed an impressive research study among global CEOs and other influentials around the world for the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in 2010.  They say that it is the largest survey ever among CEOs on sustainability. Some of the key findings are worth thinking about as sustainability defines the corporate reputation landscape in a few short years to come:

1. Brand/trust/reputation is the strongest reason why CEOs say they are taking action on sustainability (72% say so). The next best reason lags fairly far behind at 44% –  potential for revenue growth and cost reduction. Reputation seems to be behind the motivation for many CEO and corporate actions these days.

2. CEOs recognize that the consumer is the most influential stakeholder on the issues of sustainability in the years ahead — 58% of CEOs say so and it is a perception that ranks even higher than employees (45%).  They believe that consumers are King despite the mixed evidence on whether consumers are demanding products that are sustainability-true (a word I just made up).

3. Collaboration is critical to the sustainability movement.  Here I have to agree since I am seeing a greater focus among clients on partnerships and coalitions in all areas, including CSR. As Accenture writes, “…global challenges are too broad and too complex to go it alone.” Multi-stakeholder partnerships are the new trend in corporate reputation building.

4. One of the more significant findings was that 81% of CEOs say that sustainability is now embedded into the strategy and operations of their companies — a big jump from 50 percent three years ago.  New to me was that sustainability is being built into executive compensation packages today.

5. CEOs believe that by 2015, sustainability will be fully integrated into company footprints. A large 80% believe that by then, this dynamic will be commonplace. That is not far away and it is about time. I was telling someone who interviewed me recently that although 2015 feels as if it is upon us, the truth is that this has been a long way coming. I recall back in 1990 when I first learned more about the Fortune Most Admired Companies survey how surprised I was that environmental/social responsibility was so low on the totem pole of reputation drivers. I thought there had to be a mistake. But that is what it was then. All in all, it has been a long progression to get to 2015.

As I mentioned in my last post, our new research on executive placement at the right conferences covered some interesting information on social media. It would be difficult not to explore how executives were using or not using social media to tell their company story in addition to taking the podium.  Not surprisingly, the results show that online channels are not being used as effectively as they could.

• The tool most widely used to communicate externally by the C-suite is posting written messages on the company web site (66%). And that is a big step from a few years ago, so this is good news. Despite its widespread usage, executive communications professionals surveyed do not regard C-level web statements to be among the three most effective ways to communicate externally. Instead, the #1 most effective channel, according to respondents, is recorded video on the Web site, followed by live webcasts and blogs.
• Among the social networking tools, Twitter is considered more effective (25%) than Facebook (19%) and LinkedIn (16%) for external C-suite communications. Yet Twitter is woefully under-utilized by executives as a way to connect or communicate. It is reported by only 6% as a means that the C-suite uses to communicate now with external audiences. There is alot of debate about whether execs and CEOs should spend time on Twitter and Facebook. The best answer to the question is “Depends.” It depends on the industry, the regulations governing the industry, whether the company is customer-facing or not, and whether the executive has the time. Few execs have the time to commit and after talking to CEOs, they do not usually have the time. I keep wondering if there is an in-between but have not found one.

Video, on the other hand,  is a preferred communications channel today because of its ability to viscerally humanize executives. Right now, video of CEOs or other execs talking, interacting, and engaging can go a long way to attracting candidates, putting a human face on the company and just saying, “I’m showing up.”

  We at Weber Shandwick just issued a new report on placing senior executives at conferences. As you know, one way of building reputation is to get your senior people, including your CEO, out on the conference trail. Not only is it important for CEOs to be visible in times of economic recovery but the same goes for the senior management teams who can individually support the overall positioning of the company. Years ago I used to refer to the CEO job as that of the narrator CEO — communicating internally and externally about where the company was headed and what the storyline was. Now I have been thinking about reframing that reference to CEO as content provider. It actually makes sense with all the channels available to communicate to employees, customers, media and other stakeholders. Since CEOs have the bully pulpit and are in great demand, they can provide the content that tells your company’s plotline.

I wanted to share some of the findings of our recent research (“From Guessing to Planning: Placing C-Suite Executives in the Most Strategic Forums”) that we did with Vital Speeches of the Day and David Murray, its founder. We both found ourselves at a conference in February on external communications and realized that external executive communications pros appeared anxious about figuring out a process for placing senior executives.  Everyone was seeking the holy grail and asking if someone had a better way to judge if a conference was right for an executive and if they had only limited time, which ones were most important. We decided to do a little more digging and here we are. You can find out more here and don’t miss the executive summary either. Here are some key findings:

• Senior executive participation at business leadership conferences has held steady or grown since the start of the global economic crisis, according to nearly three-quarters (73%) of external communications professionals we surveyed in April.
• CEOs, according to those surveyed, consider speaking engagements prime channels for communicating thought leadership platforms (61%), attracting new business and cultivating customer relationships (58%), and defining or redefining brands (52%).
• CEOs are most interested in speaking at top-tier business media events (44%), public policy conferences (41%), and business school gatherings (31%). Jen Risi, my colleague at Weber Shandwick who runs our Voiceboxx practice on executive visibility and conferences,  says: “Essentially, this new data validates what we’ve been saying to our clients. While financial media continues to be the preferred outlet for enhancing corporate reputation by executives, the strategic use of high-level speaking opportunities is steadily becoming a close second.”
• One of the bigger messages in the survey was that placement is an art, not a science. Clearly the conference business needs greater metrics and better demonstration of ROI to prove that executives are using their time well.  With substantial risk for making a bad recommendation about an appropriate executive conference, communications pros told us they depend upon various resources to confirm their suggestions. Ultimately, they admit that they need to do their own research including networking, monitoring event Web sites, conducting media searches, leveraging agency expertise, and “cold-calling” conference organizations for their schedules. A large 44% report that they have no related processes in place.  Of the remaining 56% who say they have a process, confidence in their system is evenly split – exactly half are confident and half are not. All the more reason to call us……

Hope you find the results useful in getting your CEO out there as content provider. Check in tomorrow for more on executive conferences and social media.