Posts Tagged ‘online reputations’

Some random notes on reputation from the past few days.... 1. “Green” is having a hard time when it comes to reputation. Greenwashing claims are piling up as more advertisers try to appeal to socially conscious consumers.  According to the U.S. Advertising Standards Authority’s public affairs department, “We received a record number of complaints about green claims last year, which had more than doubled from the year before, to over 300.”  Companies need hard and clear evidence to make statements about their products being carbon-neutral, sustainable, organic, non-toxic, ozone friendly, 100% recycled. The reputation of “green” is quickly losing its power over consumers if it continues to be used irresponsibly. The Financial Times article where I read about this evolution of green’s reputation said that there are certain terms that are more passable than others such as “kinder to the environment,” “ecologically improved,” and “more environmentally friendly than before.”  These might not satisfy consumers and marketers although they may be more credible. More stringent rules are on their way in the U.S .and U.K.  Greenwashing charges against “green” could dilute its reputation altogether if we are not careful. 2. As our research on managing reputations online revealed, executives are very worried about the leaking of confidential documents. Another article I read recently in the Financial Times states that networking security is at greater risk than ever before.  Executives seem aware but will be surprised at how easy it now is to break into company networks and steal information. The CEO of NCC Group, a network security firm, says that his team of “ethical hackers”  has a success rate of 97.8% in hacking into corporate networks.  Not only are wireless networks making it easier to break into corporate networks but so are stolen or lost laptops and devices. I thought it was very cool to read that one of the safety recommendations was for companies to use a “remote device wipe” so that all the data on a lost device could be obliterated on demand.  Sounds very 24 to me (the program with Jack Bauer). After reading this article, I vow to never leave my laptop out on the desk of a hotel room just waiting to be taken. The article says that we should never assume we are safely covered network-wise.  The executives in our study are right to be worried. 3. In today’s WSJ, an article on CEO turnover in the financial sector helps make a point that surfaced in our other recent survey on CEO reputations. We learned that nearly one-half of rising executives (49%) say that they would take a CEO position if offered. We stated that this was good news because positive CEO succession is critical to our nation’s economic recovery. The authors wrote, “ There  aren’t any highly attractive CEO prospects in the financial-services industry. The best players won’t risk their careers going to a troubled enterprise.” Therefore the job number one for companies right now is to increase their leadership development programs and groom rising executives for the long-term.  According to the Booz & Co. terrific survey on CEO turnover, 18% of financial services firms lost their CEO in 2008 and of these, more than half were pushed out. As the WSJ reports, several firms are now looking for CEO replacements – AIG, Hartford, Freddie Mac. The reputation of the financial services sector is in great need of repair and only when we have willing, seasoned and values-driven executives in the corner suite, will we be able to talk about a reputation recovery in the financial services sector.

    I recently Twittered about this survey since I thought it had some excellent information. The research comes from Deloitte LLP and is their 2009 Ethics & Workplace Survey. The topic this year was social networking and reputational risk in the workplace. Timely.  Since we conducted our survey on how executives manage their reputations online, Deloitte’s survey added some nuances that we did not cover. Deloitte had Opinion Research survey 2000+ employees and 500 executives in the U.S.  Here are some of the more interesting facts that caught my eye.

Employees

• 74% of employees believe that it is easy to damage a corporate reputation through social media (That’s high awareness for sure)
• 24% say they don’t know if their company has a social media policy and 11% say their company has one but they don’t know what it is about.
• 49% say that they would not change their online behavior if their company had a corporate social media policy (the survey also found that 29% of employees were being a bit more careful about what  they did online in insure that they kept their jobs in these tough economic times)
• Somewhat more than one third said that they rarely or never think about their boss, colleagues or clients when participating online (I’d call that risky)
• 26% say that their company does not allow them on certain social networking sites during work hours (I hear that often when traveling in Europe and was initially surprised. But there seems to be a large enough portion of the workforce that has no access to certain of these sites.)

Executives

• Only 15% of executives are addressing risks from social media at the board level
• Only 17% say that their companies have management systems in place to identify online social media risks (Not good news)
• Only 22% say that their company has formal social media policies and guidelines in place for employees (This is increasingly important as the FTC becomes more involved with social media and begins thinking about changing rules.)
• 67% of executives say that their company does not discuss how to use social media to leverage their strengths or mitigate risks (That’s an awfully high percentage. This is risky in itself!)

 

 

I am part of a panel tomorrow in Cambridge talking about our new research on managing reputations online. Since I try to anticipate questions, I thought I would review which CEOs are blogging these days. I expect that someone might ask if CEOs should blog. Our research found that most executives say that less than 50% of corporate blogs are accurate. That may or may not be the case but I would add that any CEO who blogs has put their reputation on the line because it is easy to slip up.

 

Lately I have been fascinated by Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh. I have bought shoes from the online retailer and have to admit it was a great experience. My daughter is always buying from Zappos which is how I heard about them (word of mouth). The Zappos return policy is perfect for her because she gets 365 days to return shoes. Tony also twitters which is where I usually follow his comings and goings.  Zappos’ culture is all about the best customer service and the CEO says that culture is the brand. I think he has it right. I found this comment about their hiring process which says it all:

 

“At the end of the first week of training, we make an offer to the entire class. We offer everyone $2000 to quit (in addition to paying them for the time they've already worked), and it's a standing offer until the end of the fourth week of training. We want to make sure that employees are here for more than just a paycheck. We want employees that believe in our long term vision and want to be a part of our culture. As it turns out, on average, less than 1% of people end up taking the offer.”

 

Reputations are built on many factors. Culture is certainly one and that is evident when reading Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For. Customer excellence is another prime factor. Zappos is a good best practice company for those interested in reputation-building.