Jarvis Cromwell of J-2 Consultancy recently wrote about China’s reputational black eye. First there was the discovery of an industrial chemical in pet food imported from China. Then came news of an anti-freeze ingredient found in imported Chinese toothpaste.
If you like your pet fed and your teeth clean, you’re probably keeping your distance from Chinese products that do both. This goes directly to Cromwell’s perspective on reputation management: Trust problems are at their heart organizational performance issues.
Earning a positive reputation and keeping the trust of the public and your stakeholders is primarily about how your organization performs. It isn’t about how well you respond to a crisis. It isn’t about your corporate social responsibility program. It isn’t about your philanthropic largess.
Don’t get me wrong. Crisis communications planning and preparedness is important. Corporate social responsibility is important. Corporate philanthropy is important.
What builds and maintains a positive corporate reputation at minimum are reliable performance, ethical behavior, and safe production.
Short of that, any corporate social responsibility programs, philanthropy, or “do good” PR is merely a cosmetic fix – a facade – that hides what lies underneath.
Cromwell’s blog, The Reputation Garage, is available at http://reputationgarage.blogspot.com.
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