Expectations: What Are You Doing to Manage Your Reputation Risk

Guidance from the Harvard Business Review and Reputation Intelligence

It’s a problematic fact that not all organizations or individuals clearly and fully understand the severe risks to their reputations that exist — and consistently take the necessary, measured steps to ethically protect careers, missions and the organization.

This “brief” shares knowledge and insights from the Harvard Business Review that Reputation Intelligence adds to, for the purpose of providing a detailed guide.

Let’s begin. Did you know, for instance…

“Most companies… tend to focus their energies on handling the threats to their reputations that have already surfaced. This is not risk management; it is crisis management—a reactive approach whose purpose is to limit the damage,” write Robert G. Eccles, Scott C. Newquist and Roland Schatz at the HBR.

“… even sophisticated companies,” they add, “have only a fuzzy idea of how to manage reputational risk.”

Smart, successful leader and companies focusing reactively instead of proactively.

The assertion here is that it’s much wiser and more responsible — and less stressful and costly — to focus on the front end with prevention instead of getting caught off-guard and having to engage in immediate “issues management” or crisis management.