Seat at the Table

A few week’s ago Business Week took an interesting look at how companies are measuring and managing their reputation in “What Price Reputation.”

The article’s direct implication is that a business may directly invests in and manages its reputation.   While a business does invest in reputation, it only does so indirectly, by identifying and investing in the components, such as higher quality products or superior customer service, that boost reputation.   The public relations function should best focus on identifying and recommending the business decisions that drive reputation, communicate any resulting action to the public, and then measure the shift in reputation through surveys.    In other words, don’t look to the public relations function to add an intangible value to a company, look to it to highlight where the company has added a tangible value to itself.

This is an ongoing problem with the public relations function.  Too often it focuses on the tactical  (how do I get into Business  Week) instead of the truly business strategic (how will changes to the business and the communications of those changes affect reputation).  Those public relations professionals that properly focus on the latter, the truly business strategic, will find senior management seeking out their counsel.  Those that focus on Business Week will find senior management only seeking them out on how to get into Business Week.

So how does a corporate communications, or other PR oriented function, shift to a business focus?  The full answer is more like a book and less like a blog post but a good starting point is taking a research and planning approach that starts not with how to communicate business changes, but with what changes a business would make.  In other words… 

1. Identify how different business moves may trigger action and affect reputations;
2. Understand how to best communicate the moves that are made (this step is where most PR pros start); and
3. Know how to benchmark (hint: forget the media, ask your audience).

Think of it this way, before a business decision a lawyer will advice on the legal impact of that decision, an accounting on the earnings impact and marketing on the sales impact.   How often is your corporate communications department advising on the reputation impact before the decision is made.