Prelims

Half Title Page

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

Title Page

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

The Future of Corporate Communications and Public Relations

PRCA Practice Guides

Written and curated by

TONY LANGHAM

FCIPR, MPRCA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN:978-1-78756-610-1 (Print)

ISBN:978-1-78756-607-1 (Online)

ISBN:978-1-78756-609-5 (Epub)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all of the colleagues, clients and other friends who’ve made Lansons what it is today – and to Clare, Alex and Theo, who’ve made it all worthwhile.

List of Tables

List of Diagrams

Foreword

Reputation Management: The Future of Corporate Communications and Public Relations is part of the PRCA Practice Guides series. Each is a uniquely practical and readable guide, providing PR and communications professionals, new and experienced alike, with hands-on guidance to manage in the field. Written by experienced practitioners who have been there and done it, PRCA Practice Guides offer powerful insights into the challenges of the modern industry and guidance on how to navigate your way through them.

This book gives senior executives and communications professionals the arguments to emphasise the importance of reputation – how positively or negatively an organisation is perceived by stakeholders such as employees, customers, Government and members of the media – and inspires their thinking in managing reputation. Opinions vary widely on what reputation is and how it is created, and there is no accepted model for managing and protecting reputation – is it merely “PR” – or is it a key Board responsibility? The book is intended as a practical guide and includes essays, interviews and check-lists produced by some of the world’s leading thinkers on reputation management – including business leaders, celebrities and communications professionals.

Tony Langham is one of the UK’s leading reputation management and public relations professionals. As well as retaining a hands-on role with clients, he has contributed significantly to the promotion of our industry. The firm he co-founded, Lansons, has built a reputation for leadership in award-winning work, ethical conduct, employee ownership and gender equality. I’m delighted that he agreed to contribute to this series.

Francis Ingham

Director General, PRCA

Chief Executive, ICCO

About the Author

Tony Langham is an adviser, entrepreneur and Chairman with over 35 years’ front-line experience fighting for the reputations of companies, organisations and governments.

In 1989, he and Clare Parsons co-founded Lansons by re-mortgaging their London flat and taking out a string of credit cards. Tony is still Chief Executive of Lansons, now a leading reputation management consultancy that has been named ‘UK Agency of the Year’ on 17 occasions. Lansons has won over 70 industry awards and for the last 14 years has been named as one of the 50 best medium-sized businesses to work for in the UK. In 2017, it was the Public Relations and Communications Association's (PRCA) first ever ‘Very Large Agency Ethical Champion’.

Tony also holds senior Non-executive Chairman roles in the financial technology, market research and horse racing industries.

PRWeek named him as one of the 300 most influential PR professionals in the world in its Global Power Book in 2016 and 2017.

In 2014 and 2015 Debrett’s named Tony as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK and in 2016, he received the Mark Mellor award for outstanding contribution to the UK public relations industry from the PRCA.

He is a regular writer, commentator and conference speaker. Reputation Management: The Future of Corporate Communications and Public Relations is his first book.

Email: tonyl@lansons.com

Twitter: @TonyLangham LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonylangham

About the Contributors

Iain Anderson is an expert in public policy and complex corporate communications issues. He has also worked for a range of UK politicians and was part of the founding team at Cicero Group. His current clients include FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies across a range of industry sectors.

He regularly contributes to Sky News and BBC. Iain is non-Executive Director of Innovate Finance, Patron of the National Portrait Gallery and Stonewall Ambassador. Iain is former Chairman of the Association of Professional Political Consultants.

Dr Helena Boschi is a Psychologist who focuses on applied neuroscience in the work place. Her particular areas of interest include the brain and behaviour, our emotional and rational neural networks and how to improve our cognitive abilities in order to get the best out of our own and others’ brainpower.

Helena has held senior talent management and organisation development positions within international companies and now works across a range of industries worldwide. Her work with her clients involves designing new and creative learning initiatives, particularly in the areas of leadership and team development, intercultural communication and organisational change.

With a deep commitment to ongoing research in psychology, neuroscience and behaviour, Helena possesses keen insight into best and evolving practices in learning, communication and leadership. As member of the British Psychological Society, she brings a scientific edge to the work she delivers, delivered in a way that is easy to understand and apply.

Emily Dickinson joined Opinium in January 2018 after working for Kantar Millward Brown where she led innovation, development and marketing for the Corporate and Healthcare practices. As a former freelance journalist and editor, Emily specialises in engaging with B2B and B2C audiences on behalf of both private and public-sector clients to help shape communication strategies, evaluate market trends and increase the strategic responsiveness of their organisations.

Emily holds a PhD in American Literature and is advisory board member for Loughborough University’s Online Civic Culture Centre for Doctoral Training.

John Doorley headed corporate communication at Merck & Co., Inc. until 2000. He then began a career of teaching, reputation management scholarship, and consulting on that emerging discipline.

He built and taught the world’s first undergraduate course in reputation management at Rutgers University and then the world’s first such graduate course, at New York University. He holds the IP on the Comprehensive Reputation Management process. He co-authored the first text on Reputation Management (2006), the 4th edition of which will be released in early 2019.

In 2015, John joined the full-time faculty as a visiting Associate Professor in the School of Communications at Elon University, ranked #1 nationally in the United States in programmes focused on student success.

Steve Earl is Managing Director, Europe, at Zeno Group, the fast-growing, mid-sized global communications agency helping brands to communicate more creatively and courageously. Zeno acquired London’s 3 Monkeys in 2016 to create 3 Monkeys | Zeno in the UK.

As well as his work on the commercial side, Steve advises clients on media technique, brand behaviour and personal reputation.

He began his career as a news journalist before moving into public relations. Steve co-founded, managed and sold two award-winning public relations agencies with Stephen Waddington: Rainier PR in 1998 and Speed in 2009.

Richard Edelman is the President and CEO of Edelman, the leading communications marketing firm, located in over 60 cities with more than 6,000 employees worldwide. Richard has extensive experience in marketing and reputation management, having led assignments with major corporations, NGOs and family businesses in over 25 industries around the world. He has counselled countries in every region of the world on economic development programmes.

As the creator of the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, Richard has become one of the foremost authorities on trust in business, government, media and NGOs. Under Richard’s leadership, the agency has garnered many of the industry’s top accolades. Richard, has also earned many industry honours. He topped PRWeek’s list of most powerful executives (2013), was recognized as the third highest-rated CEO by Glassdoor (2014) and was inducted in the Arthur W. Page Society’s Hall of Fame (2014) among others.

Richard serves on the Board of Directors of the Ad Council, the Atlantic Council, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Children’s Aid Society, the Gettysburg Foundation, the 9/11 Museum and the National Committee on US China Relations. He is Commissioner on The Business Commission and Member of the World Economic Forum and PR Seminar. Richard earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1978 and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1976.

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, GBS JP, joined The Hong Kong Jockey Club in 1998 and has been its Chief Executive Officer since 2007. Under his leadership the Club has undergone significant transformation, developing its customer-centricity, becoming one of the world’s top 10 charity donors, as well as raising the quality and profile of Hong Kong racing to a world-class standard.

Internationally, Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges serves as Vice Chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, the world’s highest thoroughbred racing authority, and is Chairman of the Asian Racing Federation. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein e.V. which is the organiser of the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen.

Simon English is the Senior City Correspondent of the Evening Standard. He also writes the widely read Tomorrow’s Business newsletter produced by Roxhill and Signal.

Simon has been a financial journalist for more than 20 years. He started at the Sunday Telegraph in 1996, later moving to the Daily Telegraph. He was in New York correspondent for five years, covering 9/11 and the corporate scandals of the early 2000s’ including Enron.

He was later City Editor of The Sun and is now on his second stint at the London Evening Standard.

Stephen Hahn-Griffiths is a strategic thought-leader, and purveyor of insight related to corporate brand reputation measurement, monitoring and management. At Reputation Institute, he is a vanguard of the organisation’s proprietary reputation measurement model – RepTrak®. Stephen oversees Reputation Institute’s extensive global reputation research programme including the RT100 study featured in Forbes. His realm of expertise includes corporate reputation management, brand purpose and CSR.

His work in reputation, integrated communications and brand strategy has been critically acclaimed – and he has won major industry awards, including EFFIEs, Clios, Cannes Lions and the Jay Chiat Award for Strategic Excellence. His academic credentials include an MBA from New York University, and Dip. Ad from Watford College.

He is often cited as a reputation expert and has been quoted in leading news and business media such ABC, NBC, Forbes, WSJ, CNBC, NPR, Associated Press, Adage, PRWeek, Financial Times, and Bloomberg.

Paul Holmes has been writing, speaking and thinking about public relations for more than 30 years. In 1990, he founded the now-defunct magazine Reputation Management. Today, he is founder and chair of The Holmes Group, an online publishing, awards and events company.

Anthony Horowitz is the author of the number one bestselling Alex Rider books and the Power of Five series. He has enjoyed huge success as a writer for both children and adults. After the success of his first James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis (2015), he was invited back by the Ian Fleming Estate to write a second, Forever and a Day (2018). His latest crime novel The Word Is Murder (2017), introducing detective Daniel Hawthorne, was a Sunday Times bestseller. He has won numerous awards, including the Bookseller Association/Nielsen Author of the Year Award, the Children’s Book of the Year Award at the British Book Awards and the Red House Children’s Book Award. Anthony has also created and written many major television series, including Collision, New Blood and the BAFTA-winning Foyle’s War. He lives in London with his wife, two sons and his dog, Boss.

Fu Jing now works as Managing Director of Beijing-based China Watch Institute, a communication-led think tank platform powered by China Daily after working in Brussels for seven and a half years as deputy chief of the media group’s European Union bureau. Fu Jing has recently moved to Beijing though he still writes columns for China Daily. Their platform www.chinawatch.cn is pending launch at the time of this book's publication.

Dave King founded and runs online reputation management and intelligence business Digitalis, a unique technology firm monitoring and mitigating online risk for high-profile political, commercial and private individuals and corporations. Included in the Evening Standard’s 2017 list of the 1,000 most influential people in the UK, Dave has advised many global organisations on digital strategies, reputational and cyber risk. He co-authored Online Publication Claims: A Practical Guide (2017), the de facto solicitor’s handbook in this area. He is a regular media commentator and is listed in the Spears 500 and the Spears Reputation Index. He is Advisor to Concordia and his hypothesis on online recruitment by extremists has been pivotal in framing highly influential research by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

With a background in finance and journalism, Chris Lewis has worked for a variety of international and national media. The agency he founded has grown to 500 staff in 30 offices globally. Chris is an experienced strategist and works closely with senior politicians, business leaders and celebrities. He is a donor to a number of organisations including the UK’s leading scientific organisation The Royal Society and Chelsea College of Art & Design, a part of the University of the Arts, London.

He is the author of the best-seller on creativity Too Fast to Think. In 2016, working with US Presidential Adviser, author and economist Dr Pippa Malmgren, he founded the LEWIS Advisory Board (LAB). Together, they are co-authors of the 2018 book The Leadership Lab – Understanding Leadership in the 21 ^st Century.

William Lewis was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Dow Jones and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal in May 2014. He previously served as Chief Creative Officer for News Corp, the parent company of Dow Jones, where he was responsible for the company’s creative strategy and developing new commercial opportunities.

Prior to joining News Corp, Mr Lewis served as Editor-in-Chief of Telegraph Media Group, which he joined in 2005. Under his editorship, The Daily Telegraph was named UK Newspaper of the Year in the 2010 British Press Awards. This followed the paper’s exposure of the parliamentary expenses scandal.

Nitin Mantri is the Group CEO of Avian WE, one of the top three public relations firms in India. He is also the President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI), the apex body of communications and public relations consultancies in India.

Nitin was appointed Vice-President of The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) in 2017. He is the first Indian to hold this prestigious position and will take over as ICCO President in 2019.

Nitin is also the first Indian to receive the PR Leader of the Year Award at the 2015 ICCO Global Awards. Under his leadership, Avian WE has become one of the top 10 fastest-growing consultancies in the world (The Holmes Report 2017), and has won honours like the Independent Agency of the Year title at the ICCO Global Awards 2017, the PR Consultancy of the Year – Large award at Fulcrum Awards 2017, The Best National Agency to Work for by the Holmes Report in 2016.

Dr Caroline Marchant is a Lecturer at University of Edinburgh Business School. Following 10 years in financial services marketing and corporate communications, Caroline undertook marketing consultancy work and teaching at Edinburgh and Heriot Watt Universities, eventually becoming a full-time academic in 2012.

Dame Helena Morrissey is well known in the City, particularly for her work on gender equality. She founded the 30% Club, a campaign for more gender-balanced boards and is chair of the Diversity Project. She joined LGIM in 2017.

Helena has been named one of Fortune magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and the Financial Times’ 2017 ‘Person of the Year’. She was appointed a Dame in the Queen’s 2017 Birthday Honours list.

Helena is a Philosophy graduate. Her first book A Good Time to be a Girl, Don’t Lean In, Change the System was published in February 2018.

James Nicandrou is Research Executive at Opinium focusing on PR and communications research. Since graduating with a degree in business management, James has focused his attention on using insight to help brands navigate their current and future challenges both in the UK and internationally.

He is the author of Opinium thought leadership pieces of Streaming: The Future of Entertainment and Data Powered Health.

Matthew Painter is Managing Director of the Ipsos MORI Reputation Centre and Member of the firm’s Public Affairs Management Board. He leads a team of 30 based in Ipsos MORI’s London HQ, which helps business leaders to measure and manage their corporate reputation, brand and communications effectiveness. Previously Head of Research at Echo Research Ltd, over 15 years Matt has worked with some of the world’s most admired businesses and public sector organisations across Europe, the US, Japan, Russia and the GCC. (matthew.painter@ipsos.com)

Robert Phillips is the author of Trust Me, PR Is Dead (Unbound, 2015) and a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School. He is the Co-founder of Jericho Chambers and former UK and EMEA Chief Executive of Edelman, the world’s largest Public Relations firm. Robert advises global business leaders and organisations on trust, leadership and communications and is a provocative public speaker and commentator. He has been trying to make the world a better place since the age of eight. Management Today calls Robert ‘the repentant spinner’.

Danny Rogers is one of the world’s pre-eminent media and marketing journalists. He has been Editor of Campaign and PRWeek and is currently Editor-in-Chief of PRWeek UK. He has won many industry awards including the British Society of Magazine Editors’ ‘Editor of the Year’ in 2008. Rogers has also been a contributing editor to The Independent, The Guardian and Financial Times’ Creative Business and writes a regular column in the i newspaper. In 2015, Rogers wrote the seminal book, Campaigns That Shook the World: The Evolution of Public Relations. He is a regular speaker at companies and universities worldwide, including Boston University, MA.

James Stevens is a Research Executive at Opinium Research. While James works on a range of B2C and B2B studies across a number of sectors, he has a keen interest in how reputation impacts a company’s bottom line. He has experience in helping clients harness the power of insight to improve and promote a company’s reputation, having worked alongside the Public Relations and Communications Association, PROI Worldwide and the International Communications Consultancy Organisation.

Arun Sudhaman is CEO and Editor-in-Chief at the Holmes Report, overseeing the Holmes Report’s global content offering, including its analysis and insight into reputation, public relations and communications trends and issues. Since joining in 2010, Arun has led a comprehensive relaunch of the title’s content platform, including its digital presence and new products such as the Influence 100 compendium of key global influencers, the Global Communications Report, the landmark Creativity in PR study and the Echo Chamber podcast.

Arun has also played a pivotal role expanding the Holmes Report’s coverage into Asia-Pacific and other emerging markets, and has helped steer the company’s international events programme, particularly the Global Public Relations Summit. Prior to joining the Holmes Report, Arun spent more than seven years with Haymarket Media in Hong Kong, Singapore and London.

In 2015, Arun was inducted into the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Lara Thomas has been a communications consultant for four years at Lansons, specialising in reputation management and strategy. Clients have brought Lara into crisis and issues management, change and employee engagement, political advisory and public affairs and media relations. Lara has worked with clients to navigate reputational risks stemming from policy change, NHS announcements and decision making, health and safety incidents, media and political criticism, stakeholder conflicts of interest and global redundancy programmes.

Lara holds a BA in Geography from the University of Leeds, UK.

Basil Towers is Senior Managing Director at Teneo Blue Rubicon. He researches and advises on reputation in an organisational and functional capability. His 15-year research programme in Europe, the US and EMEA informs the development of proprietary models and benchmarks.

He founded Hesleden Partners in 2005 to help companies manage reputations that deliver business value. It was acquired by Teneo Blue Rubicon in 2014.

Basil started at Burson Marsteller before establishing Shandwick Communications and joining the Shandwick UK board. He set up Christow Consultants, a communications and research consultancy, in 1989 and established the Corporate Affairs Academy in partnership with the Saïd Business School’s Centre for Corporate Reputation in 2012.

Kasper Ulf Nielsen is Chief Product Officer at Reputation Institute. Kasper is responsible for designing, developing and implementing the products and services that guide companies on their reputation journey.

Since 2004, Kasper has played a leading role in the development of Reputation Institute into the global leader of reputation measurement and management. Kasper has consulted companies from across 20 +  industries in 30 +  countries on how to measure and manage their reputation.

As a thought leader in reputation management, Kasper was instrumental in designing the Global RepTrak® study, which is the largest study of corporate reputation in the world. Kasper has developed the Reputation Excellence Framework, which identifies the competencies needed to manage reputation.

Kasper is a frequent commentator on reputation topics in the media, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Financial Times, Bloomberg, as well as local radio and TV around the world.

Kasper holds a Master of Science in Intercultural Management from Copenhagen Business School with MBA credits from McGill University in Canada.

Stephen Waddington is Partner and Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum helping clients and colleagues to do the best job possible at engaging with the public.

He is Visiting Professor in Practice at the Newcastle University supporting the university and students through teaching and mentoring.

Stephen originally trained as a journalist before following a career in public relations. He co-founded, managed and sold two award-winning public relations agencies with Steve Earl: Rainier PR in 1998 and Speed in 2009.

Stephen was President of the CIPR in 2014. In 2017, Stephen received the PRCA’s outstanding contribution to digital public relations.

David Waller joined FTI Consulting in July 2016 as a Senior Managing Director in the strategic communications practice of FTI Consulting based in London. David has had a 30-year career in financial journalism and communications. He spent nearly 10 years with the Financial Times, including a spell as Frankfurt Correspondent and Deputy Head of the Lex Column. Before joining FTI, he was the former Head of Group Communications at Man Group, having previously held senior communications roles at Allianz and Dresdner Kleinwort.

David is a published author on the subjects of both business and PR and his latest work, co-authored with Rupert Younger, is The Reputation Game (2017). For further details see www.davidwallerwriter.com

As a Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham, Hazel Westwood lectures in PR and Reputation Management. She also consults in reputation building and crisis communications. Following a first career as a journalist, including 18 years on Sky News, Hazel adopts a practitioner’s approach, with a nod to peer reviewed research in robust case study analysis. She delivers accessible, practical insights into today’s reputational issues, relevant for public, private and third sector organisations. Hazel also leads, designs and develops Business Management programmes in the UK and Singapore, and is Associate of Birmingham Business School’s Centre for Responsible Business.

Emma Woollcott is Partner in Mishcon Private and Head of the Reputation Protection Group. She advises individuals, companies and charities on defamation, breach of confidence, invasion of privacy, harassment and data protection concerns. She is particularly adept in digital technology and online publications, often advising in times of crisis and in the context of wider disputes. Emma provides claimants and defendants with pre- and post-publication advice, including obtaining, defending and discharging injunctions. Emma takes a holistic approach to Reputation Protection, encouraging clients to prepare in advance for potential challenges, and effectively mitigating any damage caused by negative publicity.

Preface

A good reputation is one of the keys to success in business and in life. Organisations with the best reputations outperform rivals in a myriad of tangible ways from recruiting higher quality staff to succeeding with smaller marketing budgets to exerting greater influence over governments.

In the long term, of course, reputation can only be based on reality and behaviour. The only way to be seen as a great company is to be a great company. The only way to be trusted is to be trustworthy. But in the short term, unfairness is around us. There are great companies that are underestimated and there are organisations and people building unfair advantage. That’s because some manage reputation better than others.

This book explores reputation and reputation management. It discusses the forces shaping reputation today and looks towards the future. I believe that reputation management is the future of corporate communications and public relations.

In this book, I have chosen to showcase a wide variety of views from across the world. There are 27 essays and eight in-depth interviews with leaders in a wide range of industries. There are also 39 reputation management case studies drawn from leading practitioners in 27 countries across six continents. The book has plenty of statistics, sidebars and opinions from people of all backgrounds. That’s how I wanted it, and I hope you like it that way too.

I close the book by suggesting that the very practice of reputation management is a force for good. Our industry is about dialogue and the world is a better place if governments, organisations and companies are talking to each other and explaining why they do what they do. Enjoy.

Acknowledgements

Since its formation in 1989, Lansons has employed over 650 people and worked with well over 1,000 clients. Thank you all. I’ve learnt something from every one of you, and continue to learn from you every day.

My biggest thanks go to Clare Parsons, whose husband I am, and who co-founded Lansons with me all those years ago. Clare still chairs Lansons and is also current chair of Public Relations Organisations International (PROI), the global network of over 75 independently owned consultancies in over 50 countries across the world. She was an invaluable sounding board to me in writing this book.

Huge thanks for helping put the book together go to Emma Read, who helped co-ordinate the essays and interviews and much more and to Megan Sunderland who helped with the reputation management case studies and provided project management support. Thank you also to other Lansons colleagues – Oshin Sharma for editorial and proofreading support and to Tom Baldock, Timo Burbidge, Shirley Collyer, Callum Finch, Joe Greaney, Hugh James, Michael Lach, Sarah Penney, Emma Robinson, Jamie Smith and Michael White for your help.

It’s impossible to name you all here, but I’m super grateful to all 81 people who wrote essays, submitted case studies or agreed to be interviewed by me for this book. It would not have been possible without you.

Special thanks go to James Endersby and his team at Opinium Research in London for conducting original market research studies for this book. Thank you also to Matt Cartmell, Deputy Director General of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) in London for mobilising International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) members to take part in one of those surveys.

And finally, thank you to the PRCA and to ICCO for commissioning me to write this book. It’s been fun to have the opportunity to make contact with so many different people in different organisations across the world.