As the dust barely settles on a number of high profile news events, the News of the World phone hacking scandal, the riots in England, allegations of corruption in high places in various sports, the safety of idyllic Seychelles beaches, it is easy to see that, in all manner of ways, a reputation is more often than not just a slither of veneer and not solid oak. The financial and social ramifications of such damaging events will only play out in the weeks and months’ ahead.
A reputation is ephemeral at best and the ease with which it can be undone almost beggars belief. In the year that the UK was lauded for bringing the world a fairytale royal wedding with all the attendant commercial spin-offs for business and tourism and international standing, we have come to having major international companies sending out travel notices to their non-UK employees warning them about the ‘civil unrest’ and to exercise caution when making travel arrangements to Great Britain. How much this will hurt the country’s future tourism and the expected influx of visitors to the London Olympics is anybody’s guess – sufficient to say that it will be measurable.
The Japanese earthquake has dealt a serious blow to the reputation of the Nuclear energy industry that it may never recover from.
The phone hacking scandal not only brought about the death of a long established and widely read newspaper (threatening the livelihoods of many) but it also put paid, at least for the time being to the proposed bid by News Corporation for outright control of British Sky Broadcasting. The financial impact will no doubt come out in the wash of next year’s financial results together with an opportunity cost of not having 100% of the revenue stream flowing into the financial coffers.
The ‘foreign’ shark that somehow managed to find its way into the tranquil waters of the Seychelles and slaughter two people couldn’t possibly imagine the impact it would have on the island’s economy where diving and snorkelling almost represent what the islands stand for.
At the end of the day, a reputation treads carefully across a frozen lake of uncertainty – unaware of exactly how thick the ice is that lies beneath. Or, in the case of the unsinkable Titanic, how big is the iceberg that will finally send her to a watery grave.
For a customer experience management provider like Percepta, ‘reputation’ is the very essence of everything we do – at a corporate level in the way we deal with our clients and with ‘their’ customers, at an individual level in the way we treat our peers and employees, and at a broader, more abstract level in how we can bring insight and experience to help clients improve their reputations or repair them when they become tarnished or damaged.
So, who are you gonna call? If it’s paranormal activity, demons and poltergeists…. then, clearly, Ghostbusters are your guys… for everything else, give us a call, drop us a line… we’ll be happy to hear from you.
Who would have thought given the credit crunch impact on the automotive industry in 2009 that we would be witnessing a beleaguered and battered Toyota? Surely, the big Detroit three should be the main victims of the biggest economical downturn in recent history, but if you read the press over the past couple of months Toyota is destabilised and the current leader of wow and gloom. Toyota certainly made a loss last year for the first time in its history but is financially in better shape than many of its competitors so what was their problem? Toyota’s problem, and it is a big one, is failure to manage a product quality recall effectively until they were forced to face up to the safety implications relating to the accelerator pedals and braking systems. Denial is not a good strategy when it comes to people safety!