Reputation resilience is a topic I often think about because it should be on all leaders’ minds. How can I build the most resilient culture so that we can withstand a crisis that risks our hard fought for reputation? A new report from Schillings in the U.K. examined UK FTSE 350 and leading private companies about reputation risk and resilience. Respondents were Communications, Legal and Risk executives. Here are some of the findings:
- All executives surveyed are spending more time on reputation risk management than they did two years ago — 80% say more time (among risk managers), 68% (among communications heads), and 53% (among legal executives). No one said less time.
- Only 17% say that there is formal reporting to the board of directors on reputation risk. Clearly, not good enough.
- The top five threats to their company’s reputation are (in rank order): business underperformance, information risk, operational risk, health and safety incidents, and employee behavior. Social media comes in at 6th place.
- When asked what was the biggest obstacle to making reputation risk management top of mind at the company they work for, 37% of respondents said “CEO/Board removed from reputation risk: lack of focus without a crisis and too much reporting.” That is unfortunate. Companies should not need a real crisis to get them to pay attention to risk management.
- Fortunately, communciations and legal executives are onto it. They know that their jobs require them to take charge of their company’s reputation and any associated risks. A full 72% of communications executives said they feel directly responsible and 63% of legal executives are responsible for their company’s reputation.
- How resilient are companies to facing challenges to their reputation? There is a surprising (to me) fair amount of confidence. 55% are “confident enough,” 29% are “very or extremely confident” and 16% are “not at all confident or unsure.” Although this bodes well for many companies, I would be wary – essentially 84% of top executives are confident. If you ask me, they are not worrying enough about all the possibilities that could befall their reputations. Risks to reputation seem to be coming from all directions today and being over-confident is the wrong stance.
Another interesting aspect of this newly issued report is that Schillings is a law firm. They have rebranded themselves to be all about managing reputation risk. Their tag line is “Law at the speed of reputation.” Serious business. What would compell a law firm to switch to focusing on reputation? Here is what they say about their transformation: “To continue to lead at a time of such extensive change, we’ve fundamentally changed our own offering. By combining our unrivalled expertise in reputation law with new risk consulting and IT security expertise, we have been able to create an integrated offer that continues to safeguard the successful businesses and individuals we represent whilst living up to the promise that underpinned our business from day one.” It would be hard to name many law firms that have done the same. Reputation is changing the face of organizations all across the globe and some firms see the opportunity ahead. Maybe Schillings sees the risks down the road for them as a law firm and are taking their risk by the horns. Interesting approach.