Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation

by Leslie Gaines-Ross

Book Overview

Praise For Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation "In a sea of business books, Corporate Reputation is a beacon of light for all leaders and future leaders looking for direction in the treacherous waters of a volatile business environment. It delivers a message that's provocative, insightful, and needs to be heard." --Heidi Henkel Sinclair, Director of Communications, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "Every CEO, senior executive, and, increasingly, board member now appreciates the importance of building and protecting a company's reputation. Anyone who depends upon or shapes a company's reputation--customers, employees, news media, NGOs, and bloggers--will benefit from reading Dr. Gaines-Ross's book and will learn more about the influence they wield over corporate reputations." --Dr. Robert G. Eccles, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School "At a time when companies are facing unprecedented reputation crises comes a timely primer from Dr. Gaines-Ross that tells us what companies need to do to bring their reputations back from the brink. The book's 12-step reputation recovery model captures what we know about effective crisis management, and brings the process to life with a host of detailed case examples. It's right on the mark!" --Dr. Charles Fombrun, CEO, Reputation Institute "Finally, a book that clearly, realistically, and compellingly explains how companies of all types and sizes can protect and restore an invaluable company asset--corporate reputation. Brilliant insights and practical solutions leap from each page! A definite must-read for business professionals everywhere." --Anthony Sardella, CEO, Evolve24 and Adjunct Professor at the Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470171502
• ISBN13: 9780470171509
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The proper care, feeding and protection of a reputation

Most leaders recognize the critically important role that reputation plays in the long-term success of an organization. If you don't believe that statement then perhaps you should consider the names of the following companies: Enron; Worldcom; Arthur Anderson; AIG; Firestone - each of these organizations experienced major crises and each tried to recover. Some succeeded and some failed. In her book Corporate Reputation, Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross examines the spectrum of reputation addressing everything from negative reputation triggers; early warning signals to crises; avoidance tactics as well as how to restore and nurture a positive image. Soundview recommends this book because the author offers a thoughtful, prescriptive approach to reputation recovery. She presents a 12-step procedure that's segmented into four stages or categories, which capture the most important aspects of recovering what was lost of a battered and beaten reputation. If your organization has not yet experienced a major crisis this book can help you minimize the fallout. It also provides immediate tactics for companies already embroiled in controversy to help you stop your organization's reputation slide into oblivion. Don't wait until your company is in dire straits, read this book straight away!

How to enhance, protect and recover your corporate reputation

Image makes up some 63% of the value of most corporations. This raises the soft practice of building and maintaining a company's reputation to the level of an executive concern. Author Leslie Gaines-Ross provides a solid education about strategies for developing, sustaining and repairing corporate reputations. While she does not significantly advance the field with sharp new insights, she does offer more recent, pertinent research. She also buttresses her findings with useful case studies. getAbstract recommends this solid overview of an important topic to corporate marketing and public-relations students and specialists.

Every CEO should buy this book

The book is a must read for any company executive facing a corporate crisis-or is smart enough to realize that pretty much every company faces a reputation crisis at some point. The book is an easy read and, as the title suggests, the repair process is divided up into 12 different steps. My favorites being "Step 1: Take the Heat-Leader First" and "Step 8: Seize the Shift." The latter explaining how corporate crises can often be linked back to shifts in business climate that leaders failed to see or ignored. Drawing on her work with Weber Shandwick, and citing numerous case studies (IBM, BP, Xerox, Tyco, and Boeing), Gaines Ross does an excellent job with Corporate Reputation. In summary; no CEO should be handed the reigns of a company, until they've read all 160 pages of this brilliant book.

This is the one to buy...

I picked up Dr. Gaines-Ross' newest book because my job requires that I stay on top of new developments in the reputation arena. I agree with her statement that recovering reputation is many more times harder than building reputation. For anyone interested in the shifting sands of traditional and online reputation management, this is the one to buy.

Efficient Guide to Complex Topic

From a 25-year career of counseling corporate leaders, researching and writing on corporate reputation, Leslie Gaines-Ross has synthesized her findings into just 12 steps and shared them with us in "Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation." It's still a big job for any company, but her book provides a helpful guide.