Weber Shandwick, in partnership with KRC Research, released The State of Corporate Reputation in 2020: Everything Matters Now. This new survey was conducted among executives from 22 markets worldwide and examines what drives a company’s reputation, why it is important to be highly regarded and the benefits that come with having a strong corporate reputation. The study also touches on topics such as corporate culture, CEO and employee activism, crisis and risk.
A primary finding from the research is that reputation today is omnidriven. That is, a company’s portfolio of reputation drivers is no longer dependent on solely a few select factors. Everything matters today, from quality of employees, to quality of products, to financial performance, to corporate culture, to community. The list goes on. In an environment where business leaders are being caught off guard by dangers that seemingly lie in plain sight, companies must ensure they are hyperalert to all factors when working to build and safeguard their reputations.
The survey found:
- Eight in 10 global executives (79%) say it is important for the CEO to communicate the organization’s values in order to be highly regarded.
- Among the global executives who report that their firms experienced a crisis in the past two to three years that impacted their reputations, a staggering 76% claim that the crisis was preventable.
- Nearly nine in 10 global executives (87%) say customer perceptions are important to their company’s reputation, closely followed by those of investors (86% of global executives at publicly held companies) and employees (83%).
