The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation: Creating, Protecting, and Repairing Your Most Valuable Asset

by Ronald J. Alsop

Book Overview

A veteran Wall Street Journal editor and authority on branding, marketing and reputation provides the 18 crucial rules for companies to follow in developing and protecting their reputation, which can... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074323670X
• ISBN13: 9780743236706
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

About time someone spoke about reputation!!!

Alsop is a senior reporter for the Wall Street Journal and I have read many of his stories over the years. I am glad that someone of his caliber has addressed the issue of corporate reputaion at a time when big business ranks about equal to politicians in public perception. Even the mafia is thought to be less sleazy!!Alsop starts with a basic, uncontestable premise: A corporation's reputation is one of its most valuable assets. This determines how much slack a cynical public will cut it when things start to go wrong. Other assets - such as those that show up on the balance sheet - are carefully measured, tracked and managed. Reputations are not. Not even by so-called excellently managed companies.Next Alsop lays out various 'laws' to help a company manage its reputation. The first two just talk about how important it is and how important it is to measure it. Then he becomes much more interesting as he starts laying out what a company should do build and maintain a sterling reputation.He stresses how important it is for a company to 'live' its values and ethics and why being defensive is actually offensive. These could be bromides. What gives them value are Alsop's anecdotes drawn from a lifetime of reporting on business. These well selected stories not only illustrate his points, they also show the reader how to implement his ideas in their own situation. And there are hundreds os such stories.For example, Alsop talks about how being socially responsible can be an important component of a sterling reputation. And he relates how Timberland does it with a range of initiatives from monitoring labor practices at its contractors' overseas factories to giving its employess the opportunity to do community service on company time. And he doesn't stop there. He tells what dozens of other companies do from Johnson & Johnson to Paul Newman's food company.These stories and examples are, by far, the best part of the book. This is where the value resides and it is not at all difficult to take each of these examples and suitably modify it to use in your situation.An excellent book. My one quibble is a philosophical one. I think Alsop is too easy on companies like Altria - the former Phillip Morris. Does having an exemplary ethics code with lots of employee input compensate for the fact that its core product kills when used as intended? You make up your mind on that one. Alsop shows how Altria does a lot of things right in terms of global cultural sensitivity but I would simply not have used such an example.

A Textbook for Communications Professionals

I found this book highly readable, balanced and full of useful information. It should become a textbook for people in the communications field and for senior executives.The book is structured so well, with the best practices of companies clearly explained. The author is feisty in his assessment of reputation blunders and shortcomings, but he always turns them into instructive lessons.Mr. Alsop vividly illustrates each law with detailed examples. I especially enjoyed learning about companies' tactics for dealing with Internet rumors, Merrill Lynch's crisis-management strategies, and the inside story of Philip Morris's name change.There are also many rankings of companies with the best and worst reputations. And the author has written entertaining short pieces for some of the chapters about famous corporate apologies, the IBM Hall of Shame, and a corporate name change quiz.Given the state of corporate America's reputation, this book should have a long shelf life.

A Great Guide on Corporate Reputation

The corporate scandals of the last several years have sparked a renewed interest in corporate reputation. Although business executives now realize that corporate reputation is a company's most fragile and valuable asset, few know how to manage it well. Veteran Wall Street Journal staff writer, Ronald Alsop, explains in his timely guide how to create, protect and repair reputations. Based on solid research, real-life examples, classic and recent case studies, the author describes the do's and don'ts of corporate reputation management. Each chapter constitutes a "law" of corporate reputation and what companies can do to observe those laws. For example, "Law 3" addresses how companies need to balance their many audiences and varying interests in order to maintain their reputation. In this chapter, Alsop provides smart advice on keeping priorities straight, staying on good terms with alumni, addressing regulators and paying attention to special interest groups. His use of recent examples such as P & G, Staples, DuPont and PSEG make the lessons even more powerful. The last section on repairing damaged reputations offers compelling and straightforward advice for the crisis-laden firm. This highly readable and thought-provoking book will appeal to anyone interested in establishing their good name, maintaining it and restoring it to its former luster once it has been tarnished.

The 18 immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation

This book couldn't be more timely and should be must reading for CEOs and their top managers. It's a highly readable book written by an experienced business journalist. The author brings the 18 lessons to life with examples of how a wide variety of companies from IBM to Lego to Altria/Philip Morris try to manage their reputations. The book is a nice mix of companies with serious reputation trouble and others that nurture their good reputations with great care. You'll enjoy reading the author's frank assessment of companies with reputation problems like Martha Stewart Living and Disney, but you may learn the most from the reputation strategies of highly successful companies like Johnson & Johnson and FedEx. I was impressed that the author was tough but always fair. He doesn't mince words about problems at such companies as Merrill Lynch and Starbucks, but he evenhandedly presents the company's perspective and strategy."The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation" is a book you will want to read and re-read as challenges inevitably arise to your own company's reputation.

The Swiss Army Knife of Reputation Management

From Martha Stewart to the NYSE, reputation crises have been screaming from the headlines. Will Disney recover its sterling reputation despite the handicap of its celebrity CEO? Did Martha Stewart's publicity tactics help or hurt her company's image? Why did Philip Morris morph into the Altria Group?Making sense of it all is Ron Alsop, a senior writer and news editor at The Wall Street Journal. Ron has brought his years of experience as marketing columnist and editor of the Marketplace page to the subject of corporate reputations.Backed up by data from Harris Interactive and other sources, Alsop's book recounts the rise and fall of reputations. He highlights successful strategies as well as spectacular failures. Companies from dozens of industries serve as examples. And Alsop offers specific suggestions for protecting your reputation, coping with the Internet, measuring your public image, and making employees effective ambassadors for a great business.Alsop's new book promises to be a landmark work for PR professionals. The book is beautifully structured; the best practices of successful companies are easy to identify and apply. Quotes and interviews with decision-makers reinforce and amplify the lessons learned.I've worked in corporate communications around the world for more than 20 years and I don't believe any other source provides as much useful information as Alsop's "18 Immutable Laws." Beyond its utility, it's also a darn good read.Great reputations can be lost in a heartbeat. Ron Alsop's new book is the secret weapon business people need to emerge unscathed from the corporate reputation battlefield.