CORPORATE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

“Bolstering Reputation through Overall Management”

NUNO COELHO MARTINS

STRATEGIC MARKETING

(MARKETING ESTRATEGICO)

2012-09-05

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Thank you note

Thank you, Bernino (Lind) for constantly pushing me into the uncomfortable areas of the

professional life which is where one develops one’s weakest skills. Being a good professional is

not just about using what we are already good at, it is also about improving and broadening our

skill set. That said, it was Bernino who introduced me to both Lean and Scrum management

which I use for explaining how to bolster corporate reputation.

To Gianpaolo Abatecola, for introducing me to the still bleary world of Corporate Reputation

Management and to give me access to information that I would not have had any other way.

Thank you for guiding me through the elaboration of this project and for allowing me to ride on

the Corporate Reputation Management wave.

Dr Regina Campos Moreira for supporting and handling a student who has always looked at his

personal choices as being more important than any pre-set academic curriculum prepared for

the masses. That attitude allowed me to embark in areas which were not covered by the

academic agenda, thus way opening doors in different and international projects.

Nuria Buezas, thank you for the always important critical input in everything I do. Regarding

this report, that attitude will be responsible for every extra point on the grade. As well, for

putting up with me and being so supportive and patient whenever I embark on yet another

risky professional project.

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Index

1. Summary page 4

a. Portuguese version - Resumo page 5

2. Abstract page 6

3. Abbreviations List page 9

4. Figures & Graphs List page 10

5. Curriculum Vitae page 11

a. Detailed description page 14

6. THEME:

Bolstering Reputation through Overall Management page 22

a. Company Structure page 25

b. TMT page 28

c. Crisis Management page 32

d. Corporate Social Responsibility page 36

7. Conclusion page 38

8. Bibliography page 41

9. Annexes

a. Figures & Graphs

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i. RIM Reputation Crisis page 42

ii. Corporate Personality Scale page 42

iii. Reputation Quotient page 43

iv. Stakeholders Theory page 43

b. Research In Motion Crisis Management PPT page 44

c. Museeka SA Logo page 47

d. Savanza Logo page 47

e. World Economic Forum Logo page 48

f. Accenture Logo page 48

g. AICEP Logo page 49

h. WEF certificate signed by Andre Schneider page 50

i. TOEIC certificate page 51

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1/ Summary

Corporate Reputation Management (CorRM) is giving its first steps towards actually and

convincingly becoming a new insurmountable management philosophy which input companies

should hold in high regard whenever taking decisions foreseen to have a strategic impact.

With the present document I will be defending the importance of Corporate Reputation

Management in the management of companies and its most important areas of action.

I present 4 main pillars as the ones response for controlling a company as well as it Reputation;

the Company Structure, the Top Management Team, Corporate Social Responsibility and Crisis

Management team. I defend that nowadays good communication alone cannot create a good

reputation anymore. News travel fast and when something disruptive happens the reaction of

the Crisis Management Team must be fast. Such reaction will depend both on how the

company is structured and on who is part of the TMT. These two areas are directly responsible

for the existence of the Crisis Management Team.

On the end, this project defends that for companies to maximize their Corporate Reputation

they should embrace new managerial philosophies as are Agile & Scrum Management (for

product development), Lean methodology (for management) and bring them together with the

Crisis Management concept and Social Corporate Responsibility. All together, these cross-

functional teams will drive an organization’s reputation to grow on a sustainable way and to

have its image strengthened.

Keywords: corporate, cross-functional, identity, image, lean, strategy

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a) Resumo

A Gestao da Reputacao Corporativa esta’ a dar os seus primeiros passos para que consiga

tornar-se numa nova filosofia de gestao a’ qual as organizacoes deveriam passar a ter em alta

consideracao sempre que planteiem tomar decisoes de cariz afecto a’ estrategia global.

Com o presente trabalho defenderei a importancia da Gestao da Reputacao Corporativa na

gestao das organizacoes e mencionarei quais as areas mais importantes para um correcto

desenvolvimento e obtencao de uma boa reputacao.

Apresento a Estrutura de Empresa (organigrama), Gestao de Topo, Responsabilidade Social

Corporativa e Gestao de crise como sendo as areas que melhor controlam a organizacao, e

como tal, as que melhor poderao controlar a Reputacao da mesma. Defendo que hoje em dia

“boa comunicacao’ ja’ nao e’ o suficiente para que se consiga obter uma boa reputacao. As

noticias viajam mais depressa que nunca e quando algo de negativo acontece a equipa de

Gestao de Crise tem que saber como actuar. Tal reaccao dependera’ de como esta’ estruturada

a organizacao (organigrama) e da equipa de gestao de topo (TMTs). Estas duas areas sao

directamente responsaveis pela existencia de uma equipe de gestao de crise.

No seu amago, o presente projecto defende que para que a Gestao da Reputacao Corporativa

seja correctamente desenvolvida as organizacoes deverao passar a utilizar novas filosofias de

gestao (como sendo as metodologias Agile, Lean e Scrum) e dar atencao a areas chave da

organizacao como o sao a gestao de crise e a gestao da Responsabilidade Social. E’ uma

responsabilidade transversal a’ estrutura da empresa.

No seu conjunto, estas equipas deverao conseguir aumentar e melhorar a reputacao da

organizacao de uma forma sustentada e sustentavel e como tal promoverao um reforco da

imagem da mesma.

Palavras chave: corporativa, estrategia, identidade, imagem, lean, transversal

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2/ Abstract

One wonders where problems germinate from when they do so. When in a company we are

expected to avoid them and if they sprout we are expected to minimize their damages.

Minimizing damages is not the only thing to be done as actions must be taken in order for the

same problem not to arise again in the future. Why is this? All problems affect a company’s

image and when the image is hurt, the business itself will bleed. The reputation of a company is

one of its own most important assets and as such a proper Reputation Building and

Management is critical.

Corporate Reputation Management (CorRM) is giving its first steps towards actually and

convincingly becoming a new insurmountable management philosophy which companies

should hold in high regard whenever taking decisions foreseen to have a strategic impact.

My short, but rich, experience shows me that most companies do not have a Corporate

Reputation Management department, not even a clearly identified responsible person for the

area on the company structure. Some companies have executives whose functions revolve

around reputation management, though not usually understood as such, as per their duties

agreement. One exemplifying case regarding people who end up making Reputation

Management part of their duties is the one of Mr Andre Schneider, ex-COO of the World

Economic Forum. I will be mentioning Mr Schneider further ahead.

So far I have worked for Accenture Spain (a poor but enlightening experience), the World

Economic Forum in Switzerland (a very rich experience), I have launched a company and a

Foundation (Savanza & Savanza Educational Foundation – SAV and SEF), I advise/consult at 2

start-ups (EcoKinetic – based in Spain, Museeka – based in Switzerland) and I was invited to be

part of the founding team for a new Swiss based association for the widespread dissemination

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of music and for improving the life of the music professionals. I opted out of this project as I

was then invited by Bernino Lind to be part of the creation and running of the Welfare &

Progress Association whose purpose is to become a think-tank for the development of

Sovereign Autonomous regions (development of sustainable investment in emerging

countries). It will initially focus on Madagascar where it will be supporting Minister Tabera to

presidential candidate in 2013 and where it will look to create a Special Sovereign Autonomous

Region.

From the big fallout of the markets by the filing for Chapter 11 by Lehman Brothers while I was

working for the World Economic Forum (for who Lehman Brothers was a strategic partner)

where I had to do crisis communication management, to managing crisis situations when an

investor did not follow on the signed investment agreement launching panic among

stakeholders (at Savanza) and more recently I was hired to turn around a business where a

ruinous management team took the company to market with no product and where I also had

to manage shareholders who were kept in the dark for over 3 years...I lived many different

company disruptions where CorpRM was or should have been implemented.

Corporate Reputation Management takes on as tasks; studying, analysing and acting on a

number of cross-functional activities which are part of the company’s environment. It analyses

the “Costumer” perspective (“company Image”) as it does act on the “Employee” vision

(“company Identity). This means that all areas of the company should be taken into account

when considering CorpRM.

On the Costumer perspective the main goal is centred around Increasing “Satisfaction”,

“Loyalty” and thus way “Revenue”, not forgetting about gaining leveraged positions with

further external stakeholders as being shareholders/investors and suppliers. On the other end,

the concerns with the Employees fall within the inner need to keep them on acceptable levels

of Satisfaction with the aim of increasing the Retention rate. A good company Identity will as

well help in attracting the best and brightest (Recruitment). Throughout my professional life I

was lucky enough to work on both ends gaining some experience that was very valuable for the

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consulting at Museeka. Having a clear and bright image of both fields (Costumer & Employee) is

very important for a company strategy to be set and for Reputation to be built.

That said, CorRM aspires to have an important strategic input concerning the company’s

decision making at the upper echelon levels and for such it will have to, on a wider or skewer

extent, analyse and provide input on several different areas/departments as are: Governance

(as a whole), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Internal Communications, Public relations

(PR), Quality Control and Lobbying. Except for Quality Control, I have already worked on most

areas of the company throughout my professional career, on some cases on short spells, on

other cases for longer periods. I was involved with Corporate Social Responsibility in NY

(AlexandraChamp&Associates), Communication and PR in New York, Plymouth and Geneva

(AC&A, Storm Marine, World Economic Forum, Savanza and SEF), Lobbying and Reputation

Building in Geneva (Savanza & SEF), Governance (Savanza, SEF and Museeka)

As such, I consider that Corporate Reputation Management relies heavily on 4 main areas of

management: Top Management Team, Corporate Structure, Corporate Social Responsibility

and Crisis Management

Throughout this report I will chose, from my own personal experience, situations which

illustrate that CorRM should become a very important part in the running of companies as is

already in the running of one’s personal life. How a crisis period can affect a company and how

it should be dealt with, how the TMT psychological traits affect a company and Lean

management is driving companies towards transparency. Such transparent management

method can only affect positively a company’s image and reputation.

The present report will always have in mind an old saying by Will Rogers (comedian, writer and

one of the first Hollywood stars): “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can

lose it in a minute”. (ORIGIN OF QUOTATION)

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3/ Abbreviations

CorRM – Corporate Reputation Management

CR – Corporate Reputation

CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility

HNWI – High Net Worth Individuals

LOI – Letter of Intent

MENA – Middle East and North Africa

PR – Public Relations

SAV – Savanza Inc

SEF – Savanza Educational Foundation

TelCo – Telecommunication Companies

TMT – Top Management Team

TP – Technology Pioneers

WEF – World Economic Forum

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4/ Figures & Graphs list

Figures and graphs can be found as part of ANNEX a) under the denomination

“Figure 1”, “Figure 2” and “Figure 3”.

FIGURE 1 - Graph taken from Corporate Reputation Management Master class group work

presentation. Case: “Research in Motion”. Complete work presented as ANNEX /b)

FIGURE 2 – The corporate Personality Scale (Davies et al., 2001)

FIGURE 3 – The Reputation Quotient (Fombrum et al., 2000)

FIGURE 4 – Stakeholders Theory ( Donaldson & Preston)

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5/ Curriculum Vitae

Asset relocation and Marketing as external consultant, Museeka S.A (Swi)

April 2012 – October

I was externally contracted to do new market assessment, product re-development, business

development and asset relocation. The referred to work was done under the supervision of the

interin-CEO, Bernino Lind. Good results and presently invited by major investor of Museeka to

launch a global music association to be based in Geneva but I opted out when invited by

Bernino Lind to be part of the creation and running of the Welfare & Progress Association

whose purpose is to become a think-tank for the development of Sovereign Autonomous

regions

Marketing and Communications Head, Savanza S.A. Brazil, Pt, Spa & Switzerland

June 2009 – presently

Conceptualized, directed and set milestones for the project. Developed base of prospective

investors and raised funds/investment. Successfully developed contacts and closed agreements

with prospective clients. I conceptualized Marketing plan, Corporate Communication and

Web/DigitalMarketing management (Social Networks, Adwords, Analytics). Stakeholders

Relationship management. High-end PR representing Savanza in events such as Davos Meeting

(World Economic Forum) and China Global Business Meeting (Horasis). High level PR and

Corporate Communications management.

Community Relations Manager, World Economic Forum, Switzerland

June 2008 – April 2009

Targeted, acquired and coached company C-levels. Prepared various communication materials

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(web based and printed) in cooperation with British Telecom, Newsweek and TIME magazine..

Developed and managed a vast array of community activities (such as meetings, discussion

boards, dinners, night caps, “idea labs”) in Davos and Tianjin with the achieved purpose of

lobbying close to important “game players”. Important network of contacts built. Web/Digital

Marketing tools developed and used for easier integration of new community members. Top

CRM skills achieved.

SAP analyst, Accenture, Spain

August 2007 – May 2008

Client: Diageo / Project: West Africa (Ghana & Nigeria)

Since day one I assumed the responsibility of leading conference calls with Accenture team

members deployed on client facilities in Ghana, Nigeria and England. ERP solutions consulting

and client advisory. ERP system testing and configuring.

International Business Consulting, AICEP, Spain

December 2005- Nov 2006

Stakeholder Relationship and information management. Development of franchising

implementation strategy document to be handed and followed by Portuguese companies. Led

Portuguese companies to invest and grow in Spain. Developed a “sales code nomenclature” for

Portuguese lab. furniture company (Promolab – Indsutrial Laborum) in order for them to better

control their production and distribution for Portugal and Spain as well a full 5 competitive

forces analysis plus Marketing mix and Web Marketing strategy.

Marketing/Web Marketing Responsible, Storm Marine, UK

August 2005 – November 2005

Pure Marketing Project Management.

Developed the communication strategy (inexistent when I firstly got to the company). Excelled

at results through Digital Marketing/ Web Marketing. Creation, management and actualization

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of database. Coached interns in office, database and Web Marketing (Adwords, analytics,

social networks) management and founders on sales techniques.

Directly responsible for excellent business development that led to record sales in the

company.

Education

Mestrado Marketing Estratégico (Master in Strategic Marketing) – January 2013 ,

ISCEM (EFAP Group)

Licenciatura Comunicação Empresarial (Major in Corporate Communication) – February

2007, ISCEM (EFAP Group)

Bachelor in Interdisciplinary Studies, Major in Communication Arts and Minors in

Business Management and Behavioural Sciences – June 2005 (NYIT)

CGI – Graduation in International Management, by ICEP (nowadays, AICEP), 2005

Proficiency level in English, by Cambridge School of Languages, 1999

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a) Detailed Description

I am a professional who has vigorously and successfully helped organizations build, promote

and protect their business and engage employees and other key stakeholders through effective

Project Management in the areas of Marketing, Business Development and Product

Development. I have a strong focus on Business Development and Stakeholder Relationship

Management with clear results. Being pro-active, organized, financially astute, results oriented

with strong people, social and presentation skills as always helped me achieve my objectives. I

speak fluently English, Spanish, Portuguese and I do also speak medium level French. I hold a

Bachelor, a Licenciatura besides specialization graduations in International Management and

English Language.

Asset relocation and Marketing as external consultant, Museeka S.A (Swi)

April 2012 – presently

I had to thoroughly study the governance mechanisms that led to improper company

management, un-focused product development and consequent failure to ship a product

(presenting a product to market). With the interin-CEO we had to do a new market

assessment, re-develop the product and adapting each alternative to each of the prospective

markets. Such was done by the extensive use of Google analytics, Google Adwords, as well as

by crunching the numbers we had from Apple store and Android store. Through the use of Agile

Scrum methodology we re-developed the product and I also had to coach the team in how to

cross business development with product development. I used Osterwalder’s business model

canvas, which was introduced to Museeka by Bernino Lind, as a base for the coaching and we

used a product development software (software: Jira) in order for team work to be optimized

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and for increased efficiency of the team members. I advised new structure for company based

on the flat management and Lean management concepts.

Results of study (new market, and characteristics to be adapted in the product) led main

investors to summon a Board meeting and voting for new executive and corporate structure to

follow the newly presented vision. I also achieved business development agreements with

music aggregators in the MENA region, found a prospective new investor for the new venture

and opened the doors for business development with TelCo’s in the MENA area as well as

Russia and managed to aggregate the dismayed investors around an idea that might allow them

to recover their invested money. At the present moment I am setting up a swiss based music

association for the advocacy of widespread consumption of music in cross-cultural market

segments and for the dignified life of musicians. I am doing so by invitation of the main investor

who wants me as part of the management of the Association as well as he wants me to keep

working with the “new-Museeka”. I accepted the invitation only on the grounds by which I am

the lead for Reputation Management in both the association and company. For the new

Museeka I presented a structure of 5 people against the 7 +7 (7 full time in the house and 7

outsourced) existing before. I based such decision on the lean management principles. Both

investors and top developers agreed with it as being the only way to save a dying 4 year old

project.

Head, Savanza Educational Foundation USA

December 2010 – presently

Founded and managed the creation process in order to obtain the “Public Charity” status under

the code 501 3 c in the United States of America. This foundation has as a focus democratizing

the access to both vocational and higher education, especially in Latin America. The first

programmes rolling out are expected to focus on Brazil and Peru due to market readiness to

absorb the offer as well as per already developed contacts..

Presently in discussion with Swiss partners for first investment to allow first program to roll-

out. This precise moment there are 6 international institutions evaluating the project. This

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project is based on the concept of helping people access higher or vocational education but SEF

depends on its own pristine reputation. Regarding the organization (SEF) reputation, I had to let

go a very good friend of mine and co-founder of SEF when I discovered that he had just

discovered to have a child from someone that not his wife. This Foundation depends on

corporate and private philanthropists who, more often than not, are very traditional and do not

cope well with such details on others private life. After discussing internally we decided that the

best for raising reputation of Savanza was for him to leave. This decision had a repercussion in

48 hours. I was contacted by a big philanthropic corporation stating that they were interested

in knowing how SEF was run in order to decide if in 2013 we could partner up.

This kind of decisions will be more or less important depending on the geography. On the

present case, Geneva is a small but strong market with no tolerance for non traditional family

behaviour – discretion above all.

Head, Savanza S.A. Brazil/Pt/Swi/Spa,

June 2009 – May 2012

I conceptualized, directed and set milestones for the project launch and development. For such

I counted with the participation of Bernino Lind (co-founder), Prof Soumitra Dutta, Mr Andre

Schneider (my former boss in the World Economic Forum). In agreement with all I developed a

GANT flow chart for 18 + 6 months in which ALL milestones were hit until the moment of main

investor coming in.

I did stakeholders market prospecting as well as developed base of prospective investors and

raised funds/investment. Successfully developed contacts and closed agreements (LOIs) with

prospective partners as were some Spanish universities and Brazilian educational groups. I did

market testing by the use of surveys, one-to-one interviews and analytics evaluation. For such

evaluation I also had to have a tight grasp on the web marketing management (Social

Networks, Adwords, Analytics, Apple store, Android store, etc). I was the responsible for

Stakeholders Relationship management (at this initial business phase: investors, universities &

service providers). I also represented Savanza in events such as Davos Meeting 2010 (World

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Economic Forum), China Global Business Meeting and India Global Business Meeting (Horasis).

On the first one I presented the project to people such as Prof Yunus (ex-Grameen Bank head)

and Mr Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui (Ignia Bank, best micro-credit bank in 2010).

When in the Summer of 2011 the main investor bailed out I had to downsize the developers

team and eventually had to put a brake on their work so that I could then concentrate in

finding an alternative investor. Finding seed capital for credit based projects has become very

hard, reason for which I launched the Savanza Educational Foundation and got involved with

Museeka.

Such scenario menaced to destroy the reputation I built for Savanza throughout its seed stage.

Its spotless reputation was based on correctly decided information to be communicated to

stakeholders and proper coding of such information to be transmitted. Always bearing in mind

the good name of Savanza I had to let go our CFO on the grounds that he had filled for

bankruptcy in the US and as such he would be a CFO of a company and would not be liable for

any decision. That does not resonate well with both investors and corporate partners who

might be on the verge of making liquidity available for the system. This was one of those

moments in which TMT psychological traits can clearly hurt a company’s reputation.

Managed Project from its beginning (business creation)

Hit all milestones (legal, team building, technology development & investment)set at

moment “0” up to month 24 when main investor, after having signed the investment

agreement, bailed out.

Negotiated agreements with top higher education groups in Europe and Brazil and got

LOIs

Product development management

Web Marketing management and development

Successfully managed Stakeholders on close crisis scenario

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Community Relations Manager for the Technology Pioneers, World Economic Forum,

Switzerland

June 2008 – April 2009

I run the Project Management of Technology Pioneers program and business development for

the World Economic Forum. Targeted and coached company’s executives including Calvin Chin

(Qifang Inc), Sachin Duggal (Nivio) Chris Gilbert (Ubiquisys) Robert Kalin (Etsy Inc), Fernando

Nilo (Recycla Chile SA), Bright Simons (MPedigree), James Nakagawa (Mobile Healthcare), and

Aaron Patzer (Mint Software) . While doing so Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the

WEF called in all department heads and we were briefed by the crisis team (Prof, Schwab, Mr.

Schneider and Prof. Gilbert) and each of the community managers had its own guidelines

previously prepared with and approved by the crisis team. The main concern here being;

transparency. We knew that the market was about to implode, we had published such menace

in a world fact book 6 months before. I just had to make the constituents of my group

understand that they had nothing to lose with the situation and if anything, this was an

incredible opportunity for some of them ( as an example: Mint.com) . I had a very tight grip on

my companies meaning that I even helped 2 of them in finding new financing partners as they

had been financed by Lehman Brothers associated companies.

Besides the Technology Pioneers I also accomplished in integrating a brand new community to

the WEF - Young Scientists (IAP) – and successfully presented it to WEF stakeholders in the

Annual Meeting of New Champions 2008 – Tianjin, China. Developed and managed a vast array

of community activities (such as meetings, discussion boards, dinners, night caps and “idea

labs”) in Davos and Tianjin with the achieved purpose of lobbying close to important “game

players”. Important network of contacts built. Web marketing management (Social Networks,

Analytics, Adwords). Top CRM skills achieved.

Enlarged TPs group: over 30 new companies in one year by also negotiating

agreements

Created a Crisis folder for the Technology Pioneers

Coached C levels for Lobbying events

Created new community for the World Economic Forum

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Successful Lobbying activities with HNWI for Technology Pioneers

SAP analyst (configuration and testing), Accenture , Spain

August 2007 – May 2008

Client: Diageo / Project: West Africa (Ghana & Nigeria)

Since day one with the Diageo assigned team I assumed the responsibility of leading conference

calls with Accenture team members deployed on client facilities in Ghana, Nigeria and England.

ERP solutions consulting and client advisory. ERP system testing and configuring.

Before that I was in STAFF where I did a large array of small practical formations in Sales,

Marketing, SAP, ERP, International Management, Cross cultural communication and French

language.

Managed communications (requests and inflow of info) for team spread over 4

countries

Prepared SAP sales material for team leader due to good communication skills and

business sales awareness.

International Business Consulting, AICEP-Madrid , Spain

December 2005- Nov 2006

I was responsible for both Stakeholder Relationship and information management done in

cooperation with the head of ICEP Madrid (Eng Vital Morgado) as he was preparing to abandon

the position. I did the communication and office management throughout the last 5 months at

the office as the direct representative of Eng. Vital Morgado.

Development of franchising implementation strategy document to be handed and followed by

Portuguese companies. Led Portuguese companies to invest and grow in Spain. Developed a

“sales code nomenclature” for Portuguese lab. furniture company (Promolab – Industrial

Laborum) in order for them to better control their production and distribution for Portugal and

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Spain as well a full 5 competitive forces analysis plus Marketing mix and Web Marketing

strategy (which led to envisaging the company’s Spanish branch bankruptcy)

Developed a study on how Portuguese companies could internationalize through

franchising systems

Marketing Responsible, Storm Marine UK, England

August 2005 – November 2005

(5 months contract – Leonardo DaVinci Program)

Pure Marketing Project Management.

I developed the communication strategy (inexistent when I firstly got to the company). Excelled

at results by evaluating the market and segmenting it and then creating distinct tools for each

of the 3 different groups of prospective clients.. Creation, management and actualization of

database was performed as well as training Storm Marine workers to access it. I coached

interns in office duties, database and Web Marketing (Adwords, analytics, social networks)

management and founders on sales techniques.

We created a brand based on the excellent service in buying and selling yachts in the region.

Our sales people would study all kinds of boats and engines and on Saturday mornings we

would gather and walk around the pier for them to describe all boats. In two months (in

October) people would be coming in just to ask about boats they saw somewhere and asking

for advice. Such would open us wider doors for business. Our specialist would go and find the

boat the person would have talked about, he would buy it and recover all old or defective parts

and then present it to the person.

Our reputation was growing fast in Devon when in December (right after I left) a local

newspaper discovered that one of the company owners had been arrested for drug smuggling

in the past and that the company had been funded by money with strange provenience.

Still, I was directly responsible for excellent business development that led to record sales in

the company. Used google adwords and google analytics and trained team to keep doing so.

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Scored 91% on evaluation by StormMarine and WorkExperienceUK (responsible entity for the

internship).

Responsible for highest &longest sales period (boats were sold until December, long

after all other brokers stopped selling – mid-october)

Trained 2 interns plus 2 owners on database creation and data extraction.

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6/ THEME

Bolstering Reputation through Overall Management

Corporate Reputation (CR) is the perception the market has of a company. That perception is

modelled throughout the various direct and indirect interactions the company has with its

stakeholders. Such being the case, Corporate Reputation Management (hence forward: CorRM)

has as a main goal analysing and advising at a strategic level in order for the company to better

control its image and identity on the environment in which it is hosted.

The “Reputation” in itself is one of the most important assets the brand possesses and as any

other asset it must be nurtured. It is part of the identity and it was known for being

spontaneous and not manageable as it would derive from unrelated interactions. Nowadays it

is looked at in a different way and though it is true that in most cases reputation ended up “just

existing” out of the uncontrolled development of day-to-day affairs ...in far lesser cases,

reputation was the result of a carefully crafted and relentless interaction with the different

stakeholders at different levels. One very good example is the World Economic Forum, an

organization whose purpose is to create the conditions for lobbying groups to be created and

for “economically based” ideas to be created and discussed under the flag of a better future for

the world ( “Comited to improving the State of the World”, World Economic Forum trademark).

This organization has communicated regularly with its main stakeholders, one of which being

the Global Media, making the same message going through since 1971 (at that time still known

as European Management Forum).

As in the Natural world and society where “Reputation” is a fundamental instrument of and for

Social Order, in the business world it tends to help a company dominate on its core market

segment just by its sheer presence by scaring away prospective opponents.

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The analysis of the CR should be broke into 2 distinct groups of stakeholders: the internal and

external. The first ones (Employees) feel repercussions which are measured through Employee

Satisfaction and Retention Rate analysis. In the later ones (Customer) the study is centred

around customer satisfaction, which will disembark on both customer loyalty and retention.

The company’s reputation will affect directly fields which are confluent with the later two, as

are: recruitment and stakeholders (eg: suppliers, prospective investors and legal entities).

The management of such a non-palpable asset is complex and throughout the years it has had a

change in the way it was looked at, perceived and approached. It is not just a PR trick as it was

handled in the past; now it is much more and it is looked at with more complexity. It is

something that should be deeply engraved within the senior management concept of managing

in order for it to be communicated and affect the company behaviour transversally to its

structure as it is not something to be done by a single person on a specific role but by everyone.

As any other asset, this one can be used under different forms. As it was mentioned by some

scholars, It can be traded in for trust, used in legitimising a position of power and social

recognition, it might mean a “premium” value for goods and services, it might even mean

safety for shareholders at a time of crisis or for investors at the time of investing. Joachim

Klewes and Robert Wreschniok wrote it as follows: "Delivering functional and social

expectations of the public on the one hand and manage to build a unique identity on the other

hand creates trust and this trust builds the informal framework of a company. This framework

provides "return in cooperation" and produces reputation capital. A positive reputation will

secure a company or organisation long-term competitive advantages. The higher the

Reputation Capital, the less the costs for supervising and exercising control." (Wreschniok,

2010)

With the previously mentioned we should now have it clear that managing reputation depends

strongly on managing the stakeholders. If this group of entities (individual or plural) is duly

controlled the reputation of the company will be good, and by good I mean that it will be the

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reputation the management team aspires for the company. Once again, reputation is what this

group (stakeholders) decodes from the interactions that existed up to a certain moment.

If it is true that reputation can be one of the main ingredients from which the Ego feeds itself it

is also true that the same is equally important to companies though these later ones have only

one major principle to follow; the one of revenue.

“The selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion or principle that the one

of gain”. (Jefferson, 1809)

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a/ Company Structure

Reputation is not just about a huge amount of glitter anymore. Bad news travel fast ( c/ Crisis

and Reputation) and managing it with good PR is not enough anymore. Nowadays more than

being prepared for a Crisis period what a company must do is to avoid those happenings. Easier

said than done obviously but nowadays TMTs must abandon the vision by which “if bad news

comes out we will take care of it with PR, Marketing campaigns and by brain washing the

market” to “we must avoid situations that might give birth to bad news”.

For such to happen the company’s structure must follow some principles which are, in

themselves, good rules of conduct for individuals as well as organizations and which will be

easier to implement if the organization follows Lean principles.

Lean management bases itself on 2 (two) main principles: continuous improvement and respect

for people.

Implementing Lean management allows a company to ascertain a sense of direction and set

corporate objectives. In doing so, the company will eliminate processes which do not create

value and will track improvements through a group of reliable metrics. With such a system,

TMT and decision makers in the company will have a clear picture of the processes flowing

correctly and the ones which are in need of correction.

Lean management comprises the eradication of waste by analysing processes and for

relentlessly pursuing the improvement of the all processes. We might say that Lean

methodologies drink some of the “water” from the Supply Chain Management. The Lean

Enterprise Institute identifies 5 (five) principles intrinsic to the implementation of lean

techniques: Identifying value, value-stream mapping, creating flow, establishing pull and

seeking perfection. (QUOTATION.BIBLIO)

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People from the several departments should regularly be invited to look at single processes.

Such will allow a wider range of perspectives to find different solutions, helping to prevent the

“this is the way it has always been done” mindset.

This methodology can help eliminate defects as part of the process of streamlining production

involves using more “pull” than “push”. That implies that later production phases dictate how

earlier ones should be structured, instead of the opposite.

Not following lean methodologies, a company might eventually find itself wasting valuable

resources on initial production phase and push it to the next phase without testing. When such

happens, a defective development might not be discovered until many hours of work were

used (time is money) and eventually raw materials spent, giving place to waste. With a lean

system, flaws are found sooner in the processes and production can be halted, adapted and

resumed with lesser amounts of waste.

One very good example of a company which did not use such a management system and made

a huge management error was Accenture Spain. When, in 2007, I was incorporated,

Accenture’s management allowed a double hiring request system entry to slip through their

control mechanisms and by the Human Resources department. This department, due to

company specifications by the business development unit, gave entry to 600 hiring requests in

the system which was doubled to 1200 as the IT system had recently been updated but the old

one was still running. They only realized they had hired 600 extra people by the end of the year

when they could not understand why there were so many workers placed at “Staff” (which is

the denomination of the people waiting to be placed in a project). I was left, with many others,

forgotten in “Staff” for over 6 weeks. Truth be told, all Accenture’s management system started

collapsing at that moment. In 2007 Accenture Spain had roughly 10,000 workers, their aim was

to get to 14000 people and nowadays they are little over 7000. No lean management system,

no closed loop control in intermediate phases and problems will only arise at very late stages

when turning things round is extremely more complicated.

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One of the main focuses of lean management is eliminating waste and to do so an organization

must identify areas where such waste might be originating. Mary Poppendieck established 7

(seven) potential waste areas: overproduction, inventory, exta processing steps, motion,

defects, waiting and transportation (Poppendieck, 2002). Workers involved in the field of Lean

management should start by examining processes in the referred areas as well as having a

through look into Supply Chain Management techniques and tools.

This management system creates transparency across all management levels of a company. All

decision making processes will gain from these closed loop cycles be it in production or

development. Mistakes are found early into their life, responsibilities are easily tracked and

TMT will have access to reports which show clearly what is being done, when and by whom.

Such transparency helps managing and helps in reacting to market changes. Speed is crucial

these days as is to give the consumer what he wants before he changes to a substitute product.

Having the consumer in mind all the time and reacting fast will allow the company to increase

revenue by giving the market what it wants when it wants, instead of pushing it to him. Such

system will promote a better service and as such the retention rate will be higher, which is part

of the Reputation Management objectives.

Workers will as well come out benefited as their input will be taken into consideration,

responsibility increased and if the revenue of the company is higher so will the bonuses be at

the end of the year.

So the 5 principles to take in consideration are: eliminate waste, empower workers (obtaining

feedback from front-line workers), immediate costumer order fulfillment (delivering early

rather than late), optimize value chain and foster employee loyalty. (Devaraja, 2011)

Lean promotes happier workers and client satisfaction and that is Corporate Reputation

Management at its best.

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b/ Top Management Teams

Top Management Teams are always considered as good and applauded while revenue keeps

growing and structure is not touched by awkward happenings which glitch its own seriousness;

as a team, as a structure and as a corporation. While the sea is flat and the gentle breeze hits

the sales, anyone can be be considered as being a good captain. It is only when the company,

for one reason or another, finds itself on any of the four quadrants of Figure 1 (Annex a) that

the TMT skills come to play and actually play an important part in the survival of the animal

that the corporation can be compared to. It must feed from the market (sell and make profit)

and grow…once hurt, it must find its own medicine and take the chosen remedies (TMT

decisions) to recover from its ailments.

Like a storm can rock a boat into a small scare or into sinking, a moment of crisis can damage or

kill a company. That difference in outcome will be a direct consequence of the TMTs ability to

react to the abnormal situation. For such to happen the TMT should have in place a crisis

management plan.

When the company’s survival is at stake and the TMT did not drive the company towards safe

seas, shareholders often opt to change its composition. It is true that the CEO is usually the first

fatality but more often than not that is not the only position to be changed. When this

happens, shareholders are left with one out of two options: either to substitute with internal

people or to go externally to find a suitable candidate.

Such has been thoroughly studied, which option is the best: the internal or the external

alternative?

As per various studies compiled by Lorkhe in 2004, an internal alternative has shown to be a

more accurate choice in small disruptions as are the cyclical problems with which companies

might eventually be hit with as being problems relating directly to market cycles. On the other

hand, when the turn-around is an imperative of greater proportions due to bad results coming

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from bad options by TMT which lead to positions veering towards bankruptcy the choices with

the best average results were the ones when an external person was brought in to lead the

way.

Still, old studies generally centred around the profound change on both decision making and

structure change, while new studies base themselves on cost related appreciation. My

experience merges these two positions, old and new. I believe that tighter financial control

together with leaner structures (decision making structures) is the way out from the darker

scenarios.

Since April (of the present year of 2012) I have been working on a turnaround process for a

start-up company based in Geneva, Switzerland (Museeka S.A. – www.museeka.com) whose

shareholders decided on cutting its head and re-structuring the TMT and, eventually, its

business. At this precise moment the decisions are being made and big changes have been

implemented both related to decision flow charts and with cost cutting (as in structure

downsizing) and closed loops product development cycles were implemented (Agile Scrum

methodology, led by Bernino Lind).

As well, one of the big problems this company was facing had to do with the personality of all 3

founders who were at the top of the company as CEO, CTO and CFO. All of them with major

personality traits tending to the mania which then, as things started going awkward led them to

absolute and profound delusion. For the last year they were selling the product as being ready

to ship and as if the market was ready to buy it when, actually, the product was not ready and

the market did not want the product. That attitude passed on to the team which believed that

that product was the next big thing to hit the market, refusing to acknowledge that companies

like Spotify, Pandora, Soundcloud and others as such had taken the market by storm a couple

of years before. They were all launched roughly at the same time but only the well organized

ones got to be winners.

This experience is demonstrating that part of what was presented and defended by Lorhke

makes sense. TMT psychological traits will affect the decision making and decision making

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process. Such will surely resonate in the overall strategy and will pass on to the team and in the

end, all those actions were decoded negatively by stakeholders and Museeka’s reputation was

worst than inexistent: it was bad. Expenditure had to be cut and a new decision making process

had to be adapted to save the company and the company needed, desperately, to put an ear to

the ground and give stakeholders what they wanted and not what the TMT thought they

wanted.

This said, Museeka’s Reputation Quotient - Annex a), Figure 3 - was failing to comply with its

most basic ideas as product was not presented to market, the financial performance was

catastrophic, there was no emotional appeal and the vision and leadership were not in sync

with the market.

As well, the Corporate Personality Scale (Annex a), Figure 2) helps us discover that the CEO

personality traits were absorbed by Museeka as per osmosis. The company was seen by service

providers, shareholders and 3 partners (one of which RonOrp, probably the most important

publication for live art events in Switzerland) as a very “machista” company (only men worked

there and from around 100 channels of music, none had been done thinking on the female

audience), as a ruthless company (all founders came from big companies and were doing

business as if Museeka was as big as their previous employers) and besides all these, Museeka

also failed miserably in what concerned to being looked at as a chic product (prestige).

Shareholders are a part of the stakeholders group and this group is ultimately the one

responsible for decoding all interactions into “Reputation”. If a turnaround is needed it means

that the company started affecting negatively its stakeholders. The ones feeling it in their

pockets are usually the suppliers and the shareholders. Shareholders are the ones who have

the power to directly intervene. In this case they did so by dissolving the Board of Directors and

hiring external help. With such a decision they expected for one special kind of suffering to be

put an end to: losing money.

Though slashing costs in the name of a better performance does not affect directly their

financial situation on the short term, it carries with it a subconscious message of relief

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whenever they see that the company is spending less to achieve more. They are the first target

of the new TMT (on this specific case) and they will be the first group to start raising the

reputation profile of Museeka again, so that then they have reasons to re-invest and the

company will have money to pay the suppliers. The later, when paid, will themselves have a

better and raised perception of the company’s reputation. With the suppliers (Music providers)

in such a better position Museeka will start to give its clients, again, what they expected: Music.

After the clients are given access to what they paid for the Media will be addressed to. This will

complete the cycle of reputation awareness rising that shareholders were waiting for after

having decided to advance for a turn-around. All this said, in this specific case this company is

still pending on a very important decision which is to either maintain the brand or to do an

asset relocation and for the (slightly changed) product to be launched under a different brand

(for legal reasons).

As a note, the intervention on Museeka was made bearing in mind 2 very important principles:

Lean Management methodology and Scrum project Management for product development and

adaptation. These two were integrated after a new vision for product development arose when

the business model was readdressed by following Osterwalder’s business model canvas

(Osterwalder is an acquaintance of Bernino Lind, with whom I worked and to whom I address to

at the Thank You section). The result: we managed to change the product from music on

request to a radio model and the addressed market was changed from Europe and North

America to being MENA region.

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c/ Crisis Management

There are several happenings which might put one’s reputation at stake. Those threats can

arise internally or externally and can be technical or socially originated - Annex a) Figure 1- . I

will be calling these; crisis moments.

A crisis moment can generally give rise to three different threats: 1) Public Safety, 2)Financial

Loss and 3)Reputation loss. (W. Timothy Coombs, 2007)

Analysing or anticipating those critical moments which will affect a company’s reputation is not

always easy or possible (eg: a Natural disaster is seldom predictable). Still, such events are

generally divided into 5 different elements which might help avoiding future problems of the

same Nature as the one affecting a company at a given moment. These five elements are:

Signal Detection, Preparation/Prevention, Containment, Recovery and Learning. Depending on

the kind of crisis and its origin the “Signal Detection” can either be a succession of happenings

which can arise months prior to the crisis explosion or it can be the explosion in itself (as it

happens with Natural disasters). “Preparation and Prevention” are two sides of a same coin

which go hand-in-hand and can be, factually, the first step into recovery.

These five steps are no more than an adaptation to Mitroff and Coombs crisis management. As

per the later one, crisis management implies a 3 step approach: 1) Pre-crisis, 2) Crisis response,

and 3) Post-crisis. The pre-crisis phase encloses prevention and preparation. The crisis

response phase is when management must actually respond to a crisis. The post-crisis phase

analysis what was the crisis and how it was dealt with in order to better prepare for the next

crisis (W. Timothy Coombs, 2007).

Besides the event in itself that is the crisis moment, the following moments are as important or

even more important for the reputation of the company. The Media can perpetuate the

disaster hitting with each word a reputation which took much effort to be built. Media

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containment is probably one of the most important factors in managing a crisis. It is the media

that takes it to the larger group of people and it is the larger group of people who, collectively,

are responsible for making an evaluation and “drawing” the company’s image. On the short

term it will probably hit the company on its revenue and on the long term, besides the revenue,

the reputation will have a big dent taken out of it.

As such, much of the work on how to prepare for a crisis is based on scenario envisaging and

preparing a step-by-step reaction for such possibilities.

With the previously stated what I intend to show is that an important first step for correctly

managing Corporate Reputation is to have a very well designed and thought through flow chart

for crisis management. For such plan not to be a one-time only preparation, it should follow

these rules: 1) have a crisis management plan and update it at least annually, 2) Have a

designated crisis management team that is properly trained, 3) Conduct and annual exercise to

test the plan and the team in charge and 4) Pre-draft select crisis management messages

including content for dark web sites and templates for crisis statements. Have the legal

department review and pre-approve these messages. (W. Timothy Coombs, 2007)

As stated by G.Abatecola: “Crises are times of emotion. A purely rational response may not be

enough to protect a reputation. Going what appears to be one step TOO far may be the only

way to respond to emotive aspects of a crisis” as nowadays’ convergence of globalization has

any wrongdoing on the spotlight “nano-seconds” after the happening. I am referring to both

the professional media as to the online citizen-journalism. Nowadays there are daily attacks on

companies and corporations. There are no companies above that risk and there is barely a way

to keep an attack from seeing the day light; it is the reaction to it that will make the difference

between “just” being attacked or falling into a crisis.

While I was working for the WEF as Manager of the Community of Technology Pioneers the

world market crashed with a starting point that was very “dear” to me: Lehman Brothers filing

for chapter 11. Lehman Brothers was one of the main Strategic Partners of the WEF and we

were days away from opening the Annual Meeting of Global Champions in Tianjin (China) when

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phones started ringing relentlessly, literally 24 hours a day, as constituents of my community

were from all over the World. These were the C-levels from companies such as Mint.com

(Aaron Patzer), Mozilla Foundation (Mitchel Baker), 23&Me (Linda Avey), Calvin Chin (Qifang

Inc) and many more worried about how such events would affect the their chance of finding

investors throughout the 10 days of closed doors meetings. BusinessWeek, Time, WSJ,

FinancialTimes, Seed Magazine and much more, contacting me asking how would the start-ups

that I represented be affected by the fear that was installing itself among the investors and

partners that would be present at the meeting.

At that moment Andre Schneider called for an emergency meeting for Community managers

and showed us the plan he had prepared in advance for the eventuality of a world economical

crisis and for which all of us had contributed, each of the managers having to think and adapt

the plan to its own community. He showed us the Annual Report prepared by the WEF (that we

all had) and told us that we only had to explain to our constituents that on the last 2 annual

reports, the WEF had already tried to draw the attention to a big crisis that was just about to

happen. We had to show them that we had a contingency plan on which we worked every 3

months. We had an extensive agenda ready to be implemented on the first big meeting

following a possible crash. This being transmitted to us, I only had to communicate “my

companies” that they should not be scared of fleeing investors and that they should definitely

attend the meeting as the new “after crisis” agenda would throw to the table many discussions

whose topic would be catered around new shifts of economical power and new ways to invest

to the usual discussion panels, round tables and presentations.

As incredible as it might seem, the WEF came out of the crisis with a stronger image due to its

COO readiness to face a huge moment of crises, much more than the CEO (the honourable Prof.

Klaus Schwab). His envisaging of the scenario and managing the team of managers into

preparing for it made people look at the WEF as a place where economical content was

generated with much more precision than previously accepted and the Annual reports started

being discussed by stakeholders rather than going straight to a shelve whenever they got them

delivered to a partner’s office.

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This external originated crisis was well dealt with because the World Economic Forum had a

very strong TMT which had never stopped preparing for a situation of crisis. Its flat structure

(not Lean...but flat) made it easy for us to discuss and prepare the reaction and the media team

guided each and every one of us (community managers) throughout the media contacts.

Heading this team both Mark Adams (nowadays International Olympic Committee

spokesperson) and Matthias Luefkens (nowadays head of media relations at BursonM) coached

us to perfection.

“Crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind.” Chinese proverb.

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d) Corporate Social Responsibility

This discipline has been gaining up momentum as companies reach out for their communities in

order to change people’s perception of their business or operations. Nowadays companies

want and need to be likable as such will have a direct repercussion on the financial results.

There are many case studies which show us different approaches and different reasons for each

of the companies to follow the path of Corporate Responsibility. Though this discipline started

being exploited by companies who had a negative image, nowadays we have companies who

start developing their Social Responsibility programs without the intention of hiding some

shady action on their operations. The intention is showing that the company is more concerned

with its own impact in the society from which it “feeds”. If the impact is a positive one the

company will surely see it reflected in the balance sheet by the end of the month.

Social responsibility should be on the top of the head of all TMTs whenever taking a decision of

strategic significance because, whichever decision makes to the newspapers and ears of people

is a decision which will be decoded either as good or bad. If it is bad, the company’s image is

dented and to recover it there will be a long way to walk. It is easy to lose a good image but

very hard to build a good and strong one.

TMTs should have present that Corporate Social Responsibility is no more than respecting the

people and the area in which its operations take place. It is all about business ethics. There are

various reasons for such tendency to have sprouted and spread, being that the main ones are:

globalization, internationalization, internet, new trends in the dynamics of consumption and

the media. (Michelini, 2012).

On a theoretical basis there are several explanations for why a company does it or why one

should follow CSR but on the end it is the Stakeholders Theory by Donaldson and Preston -

Annex a) Figure 4- the one all TMTs should have as a reference.

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A company is not expected to stop having profit, such would go against the company’s true

nature but this being said the European Commission published a definition of what this multi-

stakeholder approach is. In 2001 they defined it as “A concept whereby companies integrate

social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with

their stakeholders on a voluntary basis”. This definition was recently replaced (in 2011) by a

shorter one: “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on societies”.

2 of the companies where I worked so far had important CSR departments and programmes,

though for reasons which were very different. Accenture has several social programs running at

any given time in an effort to change the perception the general public has of the company

(responsible for advising companies on how to reduce costs and increase margins...meaning,

responsible for helping companies to downsize). On the other hand, the World Economic

Forum’s approach to CSR was very centred around Switzerland with special focus on Geneva

and Davos. These 2 organizations have very different purposes and still they both use some of

the CSR principles in pursuit of their objectives.

Now, unlike these organizations which started their operations and then at a certain time in the

future they decided to develop CSR programs Savanza was launched having in mind a business

model which depended and relied on a very important and needed social aspect. This company

is not a company with a for-profit business model which will be using some of its profits to help

society. This company has a clear for-profit business model which will only work if it presents

people with solutions to their problems. The mission is “democratizing the access to vocational

and higher education” and it does so by helping people find donors/borrowers which will make

money available for them to pay for their studies.

Corporate Social Responsibility should be one of the driving forces behind companies. That

being achieved, the reputation of a brand will surely be stronger and financial gains will spring.

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7/ CONCLUSION

Much more than managing a reputation, one creates a reputation. It is the relentless day-to-

day activity that creates the conditions for interactions to be decoded as “reputation”. Still,

there are moments in which, rather than creating you are indeed managing it, namely on crisis

moments.

Crisis moments can always sprout out of the blue, especially if they are originated by external

factors. Internal factors can and should be well controlled in order to minimize the possibility of

crisis situation outbreak.

Lean management is one good approach to managing a company in a way which both internal

and external factors are constantly controlled by using a closed loop cycle in the development

of product or business. Always having a closed loop circuit in checking both product

development and market circumstances should alone minimize the chances of a crisis to arise

in the inner sphere of the organization. For such a management system to be put in place the

TMT shall be open minded and rely on the workforce “under it” as it (workforce) is crucial for

the constant “do- check- improve” that lean management is all about.

If lean methodology is correctly implemented and there is a defined Crisis Management Team

which regularly meets to envisage new crisis scenarios, whenever a crisis sprouts all the

company structure will be ready to react and such a fast reaction will surely lead to a fast way

out of troubled waters. Should this reaction be an action of perfect anticipation prepared and

envisaged by the crisis team, more often than not, the company’s image will come out stronger

and its identity will be carved deeper into its workers.

With all the previously stated, if lean methodology is implemented correctly it means that the

TMT will probably be more flexible and more reliant on its workforce than most TMTs (on most

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big companies) and crisis situations will also be managed on a swifter way with the

participation of all useful brain cells the company has had working for.

Lean Thinking businesses respond immediately to customer requests and optimize across the

value chain. Today businesses in diverse industries have adopted the smart business practices

of Lean Thinking. These principles are beneficial to small businesses as well as to global

corporations.

All in all, what is demonstrated by the present dissertation is that Corporate Reputation

Management is a lot more than a couple of PR tricks and it can be addressed to as overall

management in itself. If product development, production and marketing are transparent, and

checked regularly in order for problems and faults to be addressed swiftly in order for the

equilibrium of both inner and outer organizational sphere to be maintained (in other words, for

the company’s output to be what the market needs) all stakeholders needs will be answered to

...and happy stakeholders is all what Reputation Management is all about!

All in all, if a company has a Lean corporate structure with open minded top management team

it means that the structure will be ready to react to market changes immediately. Reacting fast

to the market is, simply, being fast to give the market what the market wants. If a company

achieves this balance (selling what it produces with minimum waste) the vast majority of

stakeholders will be happy. Being on such a spot, the company just has to be careful on the

paths it chooses to follow in order to achieve its purposes (producing in China and exploring

under aged? Having the headquarters in a tax-free country? Bonuses for TMTs? etc..). As all

decisions are, one way or the other, messages that will be decoded by stakeholders, all

strategic decisions shall be pondered upon before taken. It is this pondering that is crucial part

of the crisis management team input. In the referred situation such anticipation would mostly

cover crisis situations arising from the inner sphere of the company. This mentioned; the same

team will have to envisage situations which can arise externally as well.

All this to bring us to the point in which I adamantly defend that good and effective Corporate

Reputation Management is only possible when an organization has a structure where

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responsibilities are easily attributed (simple rather than complex organizational structures –

Flat and Lean management), when the Top Management Team is correctly adapted to Lean(er)

and Flat(er) Principles, when Corporate Social Responsibility is developed on a pro-active

fashion and when the Crisis Management Team is active and part of the strategic decision

making process as this team is the one better prepared to envisage problems in the future.

In a nutshell: a company who has a TMT whose work is based on a flat structure, Lean

principles, Social responsibility acumen and has a well rounded Crisis Management Team

which is part of all decision making processes...is a company which has all the tools in place to

be a company with a strong reputation.

A strong and good reputation will lay a path heading for profits as well as it will be responsible

for the company’s valuation increase through a higher “goodwill”.

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8/ Bibliography

Coomb, W. Timothy “Crisis Management and Communications”

http://www.instituteforpr.org/topics/crisis-management-and-communications/

Devaraja, T.S. (2011) “Electronic Supply Chain Management and Model Development –

Global Perspective”

http://sibresearch.org/uploads/2/7/9/9/2799227/sibr_-_working_paper_-_scm_final.pdf

Klewes, Joachim and Wreschniok, Robert (2010).”Reputation Capital: Building and

Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century” (small extracts found online)

Lean Enterprise Institute

Lohrke, Franz T; Bedeian, Arthur G. and Palmer, Timothy B., “The role of top

management teams in formulating and implementing turnaround strategies:

a review and research agenda”

http://www.bus.lsu.edu/bedeian/articles/tmtijmr%2004.pdf

Michelini, Lara (ISCEM master class material 2012)

Osterwalder. Alexander and Pigneur, Yves; “Business Model Generation” (2011)

Poppendieck, Mary, “Principles of Lean Thinking” (2002)

http://meidling.jvpwien.at/uploads/media/LeanThinking.pdf

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9/ Annexes

Annex a)

FIGURE 1

(Graph taken from Corporate Reputation Management Master class group work presentation.

Case: “Research in Motion”. Complete work presented as ANNEX /b)

FIGURE 2

(Graph: Corporate Personality Scale by Davis, 2001)

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FIGURE 3

(Graph: The reputation Quotient by Fombrum, 2000)

FIGURE 4

(Graph: Stakeholders Theory by Donaldson and Preston 1995)

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ANNEX /b

1

Nuno Coelho MartinsHugo Rosa

3

Facts & Figures

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

BRAND: BlackBerry

PRODUCTS:•Software:

Mdaemon (SMTP/POP3 mail servers)Security Gateway (SMTP spam firewall )6 O& 7 O’s seriesRelayFax BB messender

Product delivery methods•Tablet•Smartphones•Acessories

• Hidden product : SMTP/POP3 Mailing service through own servers

2011 Financials

•Revenue: $19,9 Billion USD (+33.1% over the prior year) • R&D - 6,8% of 2011 revenue•Sales & Mrktg 12,1% of 2011 revenue

•R&D, Sales &Mrktg: $3,751 Billion USD

•NET INCOME: $3,410 Billion USD

•Total Assets: $12,875 Billion USD (+20,5% from 2010)

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MISSION STATEMENT

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

…or should we call it a statement about their mission?!

• When contacting RIM headquarters directly about their vision and mission statement we got a flabbergasting/“jaw-dropping”: “RIM does not have a vision/mission statement that is publicly available”

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Case Study

•Research In Motion (RIM) is a global leader in wireless innovation. It revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry® solution in 1999 (a delivery vehicle for its software products).

•The BlackBerry product line includes the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, software for both individuals and businesses, the award-winning BlackBerry smartphones and accessories. BlackBerry products and services are used by millions of customers around the world to stay connected to the content that matter most.

•RIM has been loosing stock value (close to 80%) through out the last years but this decline did only rouse its leadership when a sudden system failure kept their own servers from delivering RIM’s differentiating product…the email service. Only then did the company fall on a crisis that led to the recent step-down of both joint-CEO’s.

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

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Threats to reputation

• fraud investigation

• BB usage health hazard

• lack of products and processes innovation

• SSF – System Service Failure

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

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From decline to crisis

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

•Decline - April to October – lack of competitiveness and presences only on specialized financial and IT media.•Crisis – October 10th – 3 day server blackout affecting about 70 million users

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ENRON WTC attack

Research In Motion KATRINA hurricane

Tech

nic

al

So

cial

Internal External

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

Horizon Crisis Within types of reputation crisis

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October: Crisis

•Complacency•CEO Press release•Users contacted @ BBM

November: Turnaround in sight

• RIM tries to clean up the act by presenting plans for 2012

December: media keeps 2 month stretch

•Blackout•Lack of strong plans for future•RIM said to have lost over 1M users

January: turn-around

•Joint CEO’s step down.•New CEO presents plans for 2012, including new apparel development

Media ‘s comments escalation and response

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10

5 Elements of Reputation analysis

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

Signal Detection

•March/April R&D problems in development of new handhelds.•October: General system failure on SMTP and POP3 service delivery

Preparation / Prevention

• IT tracking and mending. •Resetting of servers (failed)

Containment

• Users contacted•Close follow-up of service systems

Recovery

NOT ACCOMPLISHED

Learnings

•Stronger system maintenance•Backup servers ready to “go-live” at all times.•Quicker reaction to negative events

Actionable Outputs

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

Learnings

•Stronger system maintenance•Backup servers ready to “go-live” at all times.•Quicker reaction to negative events

Crisis deliverables:

•Team responsible for crisis management & communication must be trained to act fast. Decision channels map created.

•IT maintenance ready to start backup servers at any time. Sort of 3 laired ERP...but for SMTP/POP3 servers.

•Critical areas of system clearly identified for quicker tracking of future problems

Crisis still being managed

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012 Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

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Anex c)

Museeka

ANNEX d)

Savanza

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ANNEX e)

WEF

ANNEX f)

Accenture

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ANNEX g)

50

ANNEX /h

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ANNEX /i

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