CORPORATE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

Bolstering Reputation through Overall Management

NUNO COELHO MARTINS

STRATEGIC MARKETING
(MARKETING ESTRATEGICO)

2012-09-05

Thank you note

Thank you, Bernino (Lind) for constantly pushing me into the uncomfortable areas of the
professional life which is where one develops ones weakest skills. Being a good professional is
not just about using what we are already good at, it is also about improving and broadening our
skill set. That said, it was Bernino who introduced me to both Lean and Scrum management
which I use for explaining how to bolster corporate reputation.
To Gianpaolo Abatecola, for introducing me to the still bleary world of Corporate Reputation
Management and to give me access to information that I would not have had any other way.
Thank you for guiding me through the elaboration of this project and for allowing me to ride on
the Corporate Reputation Management wave.
Dr Regina Campos Moreira for supporting and handling a student who has always looked at his
personal choices as being more important than any pre-set academic curriculum prepared for
the masses. That attitude allowed me to embark in areas which were not covered by the
academic agenda, thus way opening doors in different and international projects.
Nuria Buezas, thank you for the always important critical input in everything I do. Regarding
this report, that attitude will be responsible for every extra point on the grade. As well, for
putting up with me and being so supportive and patient whenever I embark on yet another
risky professional project.

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Index

1. Summary
a. Portuguese version - Resumo

page 4
page 5

2. Abstract

page 6

3. Abbreviations List

page 9

4. Figures & Graphs List

page 10

5. Curriculum Vitae

page 11

a. Detailed description

page 14

6. THEME:
Bolstering Reputation through Overall Management

page 22

a. Company Structure

page 25

b. TMT

page 28

c. Crisis Management

page 32

d. Corporate Social Responsibility

page 36

7. Conclusion

page 38

8. Bibliography

page 41

9. Annexes
a. Figures & Graphs

2|Page

i. RIM Reputation Crisis

page 42

ii. Corporate Personality Scale

page 42

iii. Reputation Quotient

page 43

iv. Stakeholders Theory

page 43

b. Research In Motion Crisis Management PPT

page 44

c. Museeka SA Logo

page 47

d. Savanza Logo

page 47

e. World Economic Forum Logo

page 48

f. Accenture Logo

page 48

g. AICEP Logo

page 49

h. WEF certificate signed by Andre Schneider

page 50

i. TOEIC certificate

page 51

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1/ Summary

Corporate Reputation Management (CorRM) is giving its first steps towards actually and
convincingly becoming a new insurmountable management philosophy which input companies
should hold in high regard whenever taking decisions foreseen to have a strategic impact.
With the present document I will be defending the importance of Corporate Reputation
Management in the management of companies and its most important areas of action.
I present 4 main pillars as the ones response for controlling a company as well as it Reputation;
the Company Structure, the Top Management Team, Corporate Social Responsibility and Crisis
Management team. I defend that nowadays good communication alone cannot create a good
reputation anymore. News travel fast and when something disruptive happens the reaction of
the Crisis Management Team must be fast. Such reaction will depend both on how the
company is structured and on who is part of the TMT. These two areas are directly responsible
for the existence of the Crisis Management Team.
On the end, this project defends that for companies to maximize their Corporate Reputation
they should embrace new managerial philosophies as are Agile & Scrum Management (for
product development), Lean methodology (for management) and bring them together with the
Crisis Management concept and Social Corporate Responsibility. All together, these crossfunctional teams will drive an organizations reputation to grow on a sustainable way and to
have its image strengthened.

Keywords: corporate, cross-functional, identity, image, lean, strategy

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a) Resumo
A Gestao da Reputacao Corporativa esta a dar os seus primeiros passos para que consiga
tornar-se numa nova filosofia de gestao a qual as organizacoes deveriam passar a ter em alta
consideracao sempre que planteiem tomar decisoes de cariz afecto a estrategia global.
Com o presente trabalho defenderei a importancia da Gestao da Reputacao Corporativa na
gestao das organizacoes e mencionarei quais as areas mais importantes para um correcto
desenvolvimento e obtencao de uma boa reputacao.
Apresento a Estrutura de Empresa (organigrama), Gestao de Topo, Responsabilidade Social
Corporativa e Gestao de crise como sendo as areas que melhor controlam a organizacao, e
como tal, as que melhor poderao controlar a Reputacao da mesma. Defendo que hoje em dia
boa comunicacao ja nao e o suficiente para que se consiga obter uma boa reputacao. As
noticias viajam mais depressa que nunca e quando algo de negativo acontece a equipa de
Gestao de Crise tem que saber como actuar. Tal reaccao dependera de como esta estruturada
a organizacao (organigrama) e da equipa de gestao de topo (TMTs). Estas duas areas sao
directamente responsaveis pela existencia de uma equipe de gestao de crise.
No seu amago, o presente projecto defende que para que a Gestao da Reputacao Corporativa
seja correctamente desenvolvida as organizacoes deverao passar a utilizar novas filosofias de
gestao (como sendo as metodologias Agile, Lean e Scrum) e dar atencao a areas chave da
organizacao como o sao a gestao de crise e a gestao da Responsabilidade Social. E uma
responsabilidade transversal a estrutura da empresa.
No seu conjunto, estas equipas deverao conseguir aumentar e melhorar a reputacao da
organizacao de uma forma sustentada e sustentavel e como tal promoverao um reforco da
imagem da mesma.
Palavras chave: corporativa, estrategia, identidade, imagem, lean, transversal

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2/ Abstract

One wonders where problems germinate from when they do so. When in a company we are
expected to avoid them and if they sprout we are expected to minimize their damages.
Minimizing damages is not the only thing to be done as actions must be taken in order for the
same problem not to arise again in the future. Why is this? All problems affect a companys
image and when the image is hurt, the business itself will bleed. The reputation of a company is
one of its own most important assets and as such a proper Reputation Building and
Management is critical.
Corporate Reputation Management (CorRM) is giving its first steps towards actually and
convincingly becoming a new insurmountable management philosophy which companies
should hold in high regard whenever taking decisions foreseen to have a strategic impact.
My short, but rich, experience shows me that most companies do not have a Corporate
Reputation Management department, not even a clearly identified responsible person for the
area on the company structure. Some companies have executives whose functions revolve
around reputation management, though not usually understood as such, as per their duties
agreement. One exemplifying case regarding people who end up making Reputation
Management part of their duties is the one of Mr Andre Schneider, ex-COO of the World
Economic Forum. I will be mentioning Mr Schneider further ahead.
So far I have worked for Accenture Spain (a poor but enlightening experience), the World
Economic Forum in Switzerland (a very rich experience), I have launched a company and a
Foundation (Savanza & Savanza Educational Foundation SAV and SEF), I advise/consult at 2
start-ups (EcoKinetic based in Spain, Museeka based in Switzerland) and I was invited to be
part of the founding team for a new Swiss based association for the widespread dissemination
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of music and for improving the life of the music professionals. I opted out of this project as I
was then invited by Bernino Lind to be part of the creation and running of the Welfare &
Progress Association whose purpose is to become a think-tank for the development of
Sovereign Autonomous regions (development of sustainable investment in emerging
countries). It will initially focus on Madagascar where it will be supporting Minister Tabera to
presidential candidate in 2013 and where it will look to create a Special Sovereign Autonomous
Region.
From the big fallout of the markets by the filing for Chapter 11 by Lehman Brothers while I was
working for the World Economic Forum (for who Lehman Brothers was a strategic partner)
where I had to do crisis communication management, to managing crisis situations when an
investor did not follow on the signed investment agreement launching panic among
stakeholders (at Savanza) and more recently I was hired to turn around a business where a
ruinous management team took the company to market with no product and where I also had
to manage shareholders who were kept in the dark for over 3 years...I lived many different
company disruptions where CorpRM was or should have been implemented.
Corporate Reputation Management takes on as tasks; studying, analysing and acting on a
number of cross-functional activities which are part of the companys environment. It analyses
the Costumer perspective (company Image) as it does act on the Employee vision
(company Identity). This means that all areas of the company should be taken into account
when considering CorpRM.
On the Costumer perspective the main goal is centred around Increasing Satisfaction,
Loyalty and thus way Revenue, not forgetting about gaining leveraged positions with
further external stakeholders as being shareholders/investors and suppliers. On the other end,
the concerns with the Employees fall within the inner need to keep them on acceptable levels
of Satisfaction with the aim of increasing the Retention rate. A good company Identity will as
well help in attracting the best and brightest (Recruitment). Throughout my professional life I
was lucky enough to work on both ends gaining some experience that was very valuable for the

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consulting at Museeka. Having a clear and bright image of both fields (Costumer & Employee) is
very important for a company strategy to be set and for Reputation to be built.
That said, CorRM aspires to have an important strategic input concerning the companys
decision making at the upper echelon levels and for such it will have to, on a wider or skewer
extent, analyse and provide input on several different areas/departments as are: Governance
(as a whole), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Internal Communications, Public relations
(PR), Quality Control and Lobbying. Except for Quality Control, I have already worked on most
areas of the company throughout my professional career, on some cases on short spells, on
other cases for longer periods. I was involved with Corporate Social Responsibility in NY
(AlexandraChamp&Associates), Communication and PR in New York, Plymouth and Geneva
(AC&A, Storm Marine, World Economic Forum, Savanza and SEF), Lobbying and Reputation
Building in Geneva (Savanza & SEF), Governance (Savanza, SEF and Museeka)
As such, I consider that Corporate Reputation Management relies heavily on 4 main areas of
management: Top Management Team, Corporate Structure, Corporate Social Responsibility
and Crisis Management
Throughout this report I will chose, from my own personal experience, situations which
illustrate that CorRM should become a very important part in the running of companies as is
already in the running of ones personal life. How a crisis period can affect a company and how
it should be dealt with, how the TMT psychological traits affect a company and Lean
management is driving companies towards transparency. Such transparent management
method can only affect positively a companys image and reputation.
The present report will always have in mind an old saying by Will Rogers (comedian, writer and
one of the first Hollywood stars): It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can
lose it in a minute. (ORIGIN OF QUOTATION)

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3/ Abbreviations

CorRM Corporate Reputation Management

CR Corporate Reputation
CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility
HNWI High Net Worth Individuals
LOI Letter of Intent
MENA Middle East and North Africa
PR Public Relations
SAV Savanza Inc
SEF Savanza Educational Foundation
TelCo Telecommunication Companies
TMT Top Management Team
TP Technology Pioneers
WEF World Economic Forum

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4/ Figures & Graphs list

Figures and graphs can be found as part of ANNEX a) under the denomination
Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3.

FIGURE 1 - Graph taken from Corporate Reputation Management Master class group work
presentation. Case: Research in Motion. Complete work presented as ANNEX /b)

FIGURE 2 The corporate Personality Scale (Davies et al., 2001)

FIGURE 3 The Reputation Quotient (Fombrum et al., 2000)

FIGURE 4 Stakeholders Theory ( Donaldson & Preston)

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5/ Curriculum Vitae

Asset relocation and Marketing as external consultant, Museeka S.A (Swi)

April 2012 October
I was externally contracted to do new market assessment, product re-development, business
development and asset relocation. The referred to work was done under the supervision of the
interin-CEO, Bernino Lind. Good results and presently invited by major investor of Museeka to
launch a global music association to be based in Geneva but I opted out when invited by
Bernino Lind to be part of the creation and running of the Welfare & Progress Association
whose purpose is to become a think-tank for the development of Sovereign Autonomous
regions

Marketing and Communications Head, Savanza S.A. Brazil, Pt, Spa & Switzerland
June 2009 presently
Conceptualized, directed and set milestones for the project. Developed base of prospective
investors and raised funds/investment. Successfully developed contacts and closed agreements
with prospective clients. I conceptualized Marketing plan, Corporate Communication and
Web/DigitalMarketing management (Social Networks, Adwords, Analytics). Stakeholders
Relationship management. High-end PR representing Savanza in events such as Davos Meeting
(World Economic Forum) and China Global Business Meeting (Horasis). High level PR and
Corporate Communications management.

Community Relations Manager, World Economic Forum, Switzerland

June 2008 April 2009
Targeted, acquired and coached company C-levels. Prepared various communication materials
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(web based and printed) in cooperation with British Telecom, Newsweek and TIME magazine..
Developed and managed a vast array of community activities (such as meetings, discussion
boards, dinners, night caps, idea labs) in Davos and Tianjin with the achieved purpose of
lobbying close to important game players. Important network of contacts built. Web/Digital
Marketing tools developed and used for easier integration of new community members. Top
CRM skills achieved.

SAP analyst, Accenture, Spain

August 2007 May 2008
Client: Diageo / Project: West Africa (Ghana & Nigeria)
Since day one I assumed the responsibility of leading conference calls with Accenture team
members deployed on client facilities in Ghana, Nigeria and England. ERP solutions consulting
and client advisory. ERP system testing and configuring.

International Business Consulting, AICEP, Spain

December 2005- Nov 2006
Stakeholder Relationship and information management. Development of franchising
implementation strategy document to be handed and followed by Portuguese companies. Led
Portuguese companies to invest and grow in Spain. Developed a sales code nomenclature for
Portuguese lab. furniture company (Promolab Indsutrial Laborum) in order for them to better
control their production and distribution for Portugal and Spain as well a full 5 competitive
forces analysis plus Marketing mix and Web Marketing strategy.

Marketing/Web Marketing Responsible, Storm Marine, UK

August 2005 November 2005
Pure Marketing Project Management.
Developed the communication strategy (inexistent when I firstly got to the company). Excelled
at results through Digital Marketing/ Web Marketing. Creation, management and actualization
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of database. Coached interns in office, database and Web Marketing (Adwords, analytics,
social networks) management and founders on sales techniques.
Directly responsible for excellent business development that led to record sales in the
company.

Education

Mestrado Marketing Estratgico (Master in Strategic Marketing) January 2013 ,

ISCEM (EFAP Group)

Licenciatura Comunicao Empresarial (Major in Corporate Communication) February

2007, ISCEM (EFAP Group)

Bachelor in Interdisciplinary Studies, Major in Communication Arts and Minors in

Business Management and Behavioural Sciences June 2005 (NYIT)

CGI Graduation in International Management, by ICEP (nowadays, AICEP), 2005

Proficiency level in English, by Cambridge School of Languages, 1999

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a) Detailed Description

I am a professional who has vigorously and successfully helped organizations build, promote
and protect their business and engage employees and other key stakeholders through effective
Project Management in the areas of Marketing, Business Development and Product
Development. I have a strong focus on Business Development and Stakeholder Relationship
Management with clear results. Being pro-active, organized, financially astute, results oriented
with strong people, social and presentation skills as always helped me achieve my objectives. I
speak fluently English, Spanish, Portuguese and I do also speak medium level French. I hold a
Bachelor, a Licenciatura besides specialization graduations in International Management and
English Language.

Asset relocation and Marketing as external consultant, Museeka S.A (Swi)

April 2012 presently

I had to thoroughly study the governance mechanisms that led to improper company
management, un-focused product development and consequent failure to ship a product
(presenting a product to market).

With the interin-CEO we had to do a new market

assessment, re-develop the product and adapting each alternative to each of the prospective
markets. Such was done by the extensive use of Google analytics, Google Adwords, as well as
by crunching the numbers we had from Apple store and Android store. Through the use of Agile
Scrum methodology we re-developed the product and I also had to coach the team in how to
cross business development with product development. I used Osterwalders business model
canvas, which was introduced to Museeka by Bernino Lind, as a base for the coaching and we
used a product development software (software: Jira) in order for team work to be optimized
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and for increased efficiency of the team members. I advised new structure for company based
on the flat management and Lean management concepts.
Results of study (new market, and characteristics to be adapted in the product) led main
investors to summon a Board meeting and voting for new executive and corporate structure to
follow the newly presented vision. I also achieved business development agreements with
music aggregators in the MENA region, found a prospective new investor for the new venture
and opened the doors for business development with TelCos in the MENA area as well as
Russia and managed to aggregate the dismayed investors around an idea that might allow them
to recover their invested money. At the present moment I am setting up a swiss based music
association for the advocacy of widespread consumption of music in cross-cultural market
segments and for the dignified life of musicians. I am doing so by invitation of the main investor
who wants me as part of the management of the Association as well as he wants me to keep
working with the new-Museeka. I accepted the invitation only on the grounds by which I am
the lead for Reputation Management in both the association and company. For the new
Museeka I presented a structure of 5 people against the 7 +7 (7 full time in the house and 7
outsourced) existing before. I based such decision on the lean management principles. Both
investors and top developers agreed with it as being the only way to save a dying 4 year old
project.

Head, Savanza Educational Foundation USA

December 2010 presently
Founded and managed the creation process in order to obtain the Public Charity status under
the code 501 3 c in the United States of America. This foundation has as a focus democratizing
the access to both vocational and higher education, especially in Latin America. The first
programmes rolling out are expected to focus on Brazil and Peru due to market readiness to
absorb the offer as well as per already developed contacts..
Presently in discussion with Swiss partners for first investment to allow first program to rollout. This precise moment there are 6 international institutions evaluating the project. This

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project is based on the concept of helping people access higher or vocational education but SEF
depends on its own pristine reputation. Regarding the organization (SEF) reputation, I had to let
go a very good friend of mine and co-founder of SEF when I discovered that he had just
discovered to have a child from someone that not his wife. This Foundation depends on
corporate and private philanthropists who, more often than not, are very traditional and do not
cope well with such details on others private life. After discussing internally we decided that the
best for raising reputation of Savanza was for him to leave. This decision had a repercussion in
48 hours. I was contacted by a big philanthropic corporation stating that they were interested
in knowing how SEF was run in order to decide if in 2013 we could partner up.
This kind of decisions will be more or less important depending on the geography. On the
present case, Geneva is a small but strong market with no tolerance for non traditional family
behaviour discretion above all.

Head, Savanza S.A. Brazil/Pt/Swi/Spa,

June 2009 May 2012
I conceptualized, directed and set milestones for the project launch and development. For such
I counted with the participation of Bernino Lind (co-founder), Prof Soumitra Dutta, Mr Andre
Schneider (my former boss in the World Economic Forum). In agreement with all I developed a
GANT flow chart for 18 + 6 months in which ALL milestones were hit until the moment of main
investor coming in.
I did stakeholders market prospecting as well as developed base of prospective investors and
raised funds/investment. Successfully developed contacts and closed agreements (LOIs) with
prospective partners as were some Spanish universities and Brazilian educational groups. I did
market testing by the use of surveys, one-to-one interviews and analytics evaluation. For such
evaluation I also had to have a tight grasp on the web marketing management (Social
Networks, Adwords, Analytics, Apple store, Android store, etc). I was the responsible for
Stakeholders Relationship management (at this initial business phase: investors, universities &
service providers). I also represented Savanza in events such as Davos Meeting 2010 (World

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Economic Forum), China Global Business Meeting and India Global Business Meeting (Horasis).
On the first one I presented the project to people such as Prof Yunus (ex-Grameen Bank head)
and Mr Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui (Ignia Bank, best micro-credit bank in 2010).
When in the Summer of 2011 the main investor bailed out I had to downsize the developers
team and eventually had to put a brake on their work so that I could then concentrate in
finding an alternative investor. Finding seed capital for credit based projects has become very
hard, reason for which I launched the Savanza Educational Foundation and got involved with
Museeka.
Such scenario menaced to destroy the reputation I built for Savanza throughout its seed stage.
Its spotless reputation was based on correctly decided information to be communicated to
stakeholders and proper coding of such information to be transmitted. Always bearing in mind
the good name of Savanza I had to let go our CFO on the grounds that he had filled for
bankruptcy in the US and as such he would be a CFO of a company and would not be liable for
any decision. That does not resonate well with both investors and corporate partners who
might be on the verge of making liquidity available for the system. This was one of those
moments in which TMT psychological traits can clearly hurt a companys reputation.
Managed Project from its beginning (business creation)
Hit all milestones (legal, team building, technology development & investment)set at
moment 0 up to month 24 when main investor, after having signed the investment
agreement, bailed out.
Negotiated agreements with top higher education groups in Europe and Brazil and got
LOIs
Product development management
Web Marketing management and development
Successfully managed Stakeholders on close crisis scenario

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Community Relations Manager for the Technology Pioneers, World Economic Forum,
Switzerland
June 2008 April 2009
I run the Project Management of Technology Pioneers program and business development for
the World Economic Forum. Targeted and coached companys executives including Calvin Chin
(Qifang Inc), Sachin Duggal (Nivio) Chris Gilbert (Ubiquisys) Robert Kalin (Etsy Inc), Fernando
Nilo (Recycla Chile SA), Bright Simons (MPedigree), James Nakagawa (Mobile Healthcare), and
Aaron Patzer (Mint Software) . While doing so Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the
WEF called in all department heads and we were briefed by the crisis team (Prof, Schwab, Mr.
Schneider and Prof. Gilbert) and each of the community managers had its own guidelines
previously prepared with and approved by the crisis team. The main concern here being;
transparency. We knew that the market was about to implode, we had published such menace
in a world fact book 6 months before. I just had to make the constituents of my group
understand that they had nothing to lose with the situation and if anything, this was an
incredible opportunity for some of them ( as an example: Mint.com) . I had a very tight grip on
my companies meaning that I even helped 2 of them in finding new financing partners as they
had been financed by Lehman Brothers associated companies.
Besides the Technology Pioneers I also accomplished in integrating a brand new community to
the WEF - Young Scientists (IAP) and successfully presented it to WEF stakeholders in the
Annual Meeting of New Champions 2008 Tianjin, China. Developed and managed a vast array
of community activities (such as meetings, discussion boards, dinners, night caps and idea
labs) in Davos and Tianjin with the achieved purpose of lobbying close to important game
players. Important network of contacts built. Web marketing management (Social Networks,
Analytics, Adwords). Top CRM skills achieved.
Enlarged TPs group: over 30 new companies in one year by also negotiating
agreements
Created a Crisis folder for the Technology Pioneers
Coached C levels for Lobbying events
Created new community for the World Economic Forum
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 Successful Lobbying activities with HNWI for Technology Pioneers

SAP analyst (configuration and testing), Accenture , Spain

August 2007 May 2008
Client: Diageo / Project: West Africa (Ghana & Nigeria)
Since day one with the Diageo assigned team I assumed the responsibility of leading conference
calls with Accenture team members deployed on client facilities in Ghana, Nigeria and England.
ERP solutions consulting and client advisory. ERP system testing and configuring.
Before that I was in STAFF where I did a large array of small practical formations in Sales,
Marketing, SAP, ERP, International Management, Cross cultural communication and French
language.
Managed communications (requests and inflow of info) for team spread over 4
countries
Prepared SAP sales material for team leader due to good communication skills and
business sales awareness.

International Business Consulting, AICEP-Madrid , Spain

December 2005- Nov 2006
I was responsible for both Stakeholder Relationship and information management done in
cooperation with the head of ICEP Madrid (Eng Vital Morgado) as he was preparing to abandon
the position. I did the communication and office management throughout the last 5 months at
the office as the direct representative of Eng. Vital Morgado.
Development of franchising implementation strategy document to be handed and followed by
Portuguese companies. Led Portuguese companies to invest and grow in Spain. Developed a
sales code nomenclature for Portuguese lab. furniture company (Promolab Industrial
Laborum) in order for them to better control their production and distribution for Portugal and

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Spain as well a full 5 competitive forces analysis plus Marketing mix and Web Marketing
strategy (which led to envisaging the companys Spanish branch bankruptcy)
Developed a study on how Portuguese companies could internationalize through
franchising systems

Marketing Responsible, Storm Marine UK, England

August 2005 November 2005
(5 months contract Leonardo DaVinci Program)
Pure Marketing Project Management.
I developed the communication strategy (inexistent when I firstly got to the company). Excelled
at results by evaluating the market and segmenting it and then creating distinct tools for each
of the 3 different groups of prospective clients.. Creation, management and actualization of
database was performed as well as training Storm Marine workers to access it. I coached
interns in office duties, database and Web Marketing (Adwords, analytics, social networks)
management and founders on sales techniques.
We created a brand based on the excellent service in buying and selling yachts in the region.
Our sales people would study all kinds of boats and engines and on Saturday mornings we
would gather and walk around the pier for them to describe all boats. In two months (in
October) people would be coming in just to ask about boats they saw somewhere and asking
for advice. Such would open us wider doors for business. Our specialist would go and find the
boat the person would have talked about, he would buy it and recover all old or defective parts
and then present it to the person.
Our reputation was growing fast in Devon when in December (right after I left) a local
newspaper discovered that one of the company owners had been arrested for drug smuggling
in the past and that the company had been funded by money with strange provenience.
Still, I was directly responsible for excellent business development that led to record sales in
the company. Used google adwords and google analytics and trained team to keep doing so.

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Scored 91% on evaluation by StormMarine and WorkExperienceUK (responsible entity for the
internship).
Responsible for highest &longest sales period (boats were sold until December, long
after all other brokers stopped selling mid-october)
Trained 2 interns plus 2 owners on database creation and data extraction.

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6/ THEME

Bolstering Reputation through Overall Management

Corporate Reputation (CR) is the perception the market has of a company. That perception is
modelled throughout the various direct and indirect interactions the company has with its
stakeholders. Such being the case, Corporate Reputation Management (hence forward: CorRM)
has as a main goal analysing and advising at a strategic level in order for the company to better
control its image and identity on the environment in which it is hosted.
The Reputation in itself is one of the most important assets the brand possesses and as any
other asset it must be nurtured. It is part of the identity and it was known for being
spontaneous and not manageable as it would derive from unrelated interactions. Nowadays it
is looked at in a different way and though it is true that in most cases reputation ended up just
existing out of the uncontrolled development of day-to-day affairs ...in far lesser cases,
reputation was the result of a carefully crafted and relentless interaction with the different
stakeholders at different levels. One very good example is the World Economic Forum, an
organization whose purpose is to create the conditions for lobbying groups to be created and
for economically based ideas to be created and discussed under the flag of a better future for
the world ( Comited to improving the State of the World, World Economic Forum trademark).
This organization has communicated regularly with its main stakeholders, one of which being
the Global Media, making the same message going through since 1971 (at that time still known
as European Management Forum).
As in the Natural world and society where Reputation is a fundamental instrument of and for
Social Order, in the business world it tends to help a company dominate on its core market
segment just by its sheer presence by scaring away prospective opponents.
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The analysis of the CR should be broke into 2 distinct groups of stakeholders: the internal and
external. The first ones (Employees) feel repercussions which are measured through Employee
Satisfaction and Retention Rate analysis. In the later ones (Customer) the study is centred
around customer satisfaction, which will disembark on both customer loyalty and retention.
The companys reputation will affect directly fields which are confluent with the later two, as
are: recruitment and stakeholders (eg: suppliers, prospective investors and legal entities).
The management of such a non-palpable asset is complex and throughout the years it has had a
change in the way it was looked at, perceived and approached. It is not just a PR trick as it was
handled in the past; now it is much more and it is looked at with more complexity. It is
something that should be deeply engraved within the senior management concept of managing
in order for it to be communicated and affect the company behaviour transversally to its
structure as it is not something to be done by a single person on a specific role but by everyone.
As any other asset, this one can be used under different forms. As it was mentioned by some
scholars, It can be traded in for trust, used in legitimising a position of power and social
recognition, it might mean a premium value for goods and services, it might even mean
safety for shareholders at a time of crisis or for investors at the time of investing. Joachim
Klewes and Robert Wreschniok wrote it as follows: "Delivering functional and social
expectations of the public on the one hand and manage to build a unique identity on the other
hand creates trust and this trust builds the informal framework of a company. This framework
provides "return in cooperation" and produces reputation capital. A positive reputation will
secure a company or organisation long-term competitive advantages. The higher the
Reputation Capital, the less the costs for supervising and exercising control." (Wreschniok,
2010)
With the previously mentioned we should now have it clear that managing reputation depends
strongly on managing the stakeholders. If this group of entities (individual or plural) is duly
controlled the reputation of the company will be good, and by good I mean that it will be the

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reputation the management team aspires for the company. Once again, reputation is what this
group (stakeholders) decodes from the interactions that existed up to a certain moment.
If it is true that reputation can be one of the main ingredients from which the Ego feeds itself it
is also true that the same is equally important to companies though these later ones have only
one major principle to follow; the one of revenue.
The selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion or principle that the one
of gain. (Jefferson, 1809)

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a/ Company Structure

Reputation is not just about a huge amount of glitter anymore. Bad news travel fast ( c/ Crisis
and Reputation) and managing it with good PR is not enough anymore. Nowadays more than
being prepared for a Crisis period what a company must do is to avoid those happenings. Easier
said than done obviously but nowadays TMTs must abandon the vision by which if bad news
comes out we will take care of it with PR, Marketing campaigns and by brain washing the
market to we must avoid situations that might give birth to bad news.
For such to happen the companys structure must follow some principles which are, in
themselves, good rules of conduct for individuals as well as organizations and which will be
easier to implement if the organization follows Lean principles.
Lean management bases itself on 2 (two) main principles: continuous improvement and respect
for people.
Implementing Lean management allows a company to ascertain a sense of direction and set
corporate objectives. In doing so, the company will eliminate processes which do not create
value and will track improvements through a group of reliable metrics. With such a system,
TMT and decision makers in the company will have a clear picture of the processes flowing
correctly and the ones which are in need of correction.
Lean management comprises the eradication of waste by analysing processes and for
relentlessly pursuing the improvement of the all processes. We might say that Lean
methodologies drink some of the water from the Supply Chain Management. The Lean
Enterprise Institute identifies 5 (five) principles intrinsic to the implementation of lean
techniques: Identifying value, value-stream mapping, creating flow, establishing pull and
seeking perfection. (QUOTATION.BIBLIO)

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People from the several departments should regularly be invited to look at single processes.
Such will allow a wider range of perspectives to find different solutions, helping to prevent the
this is the way it has always been done mindset.
This methodology can help eliminate defects as part of the process of streamlining production
involves using more pull than push. That implies that later production phases dictate how
earlier ones should be structured, instead of the opposite.
Not following lean methodologies, a company might eventually find itself wasting valuable
resources on initial production phase and push it to the next phase without testing. When such
happens, a defective development might not be discovered until many hours of work were
used (time is money) and eventually raw materials spent, giving place to waste. With a lean
system, flaws are found sooner in the processes and production can be halted, adapted and
resumed with lesser amounts of waste.
One very good example of a company which did not use such a management system and made
a huge management error was Accenture Spain. When, in 2007, I was incorporated,
Accentures management allowed a double hiring request system entry to slip through their
control mechanisms and by the Human Resources department. This department, due to
company specifications by the business development unit, gave entry to 600 hiring requests in
the system which was doubled to 1200 as the IT system had recently been updated but the old
one was still running. They only realized they had hired 600 extra people by the end of the year
when they could not understand why there were so many workers placed at Staff (which is
the denomination of the people waiting to be placed in a project). I was left, with many others,
forgotten in Staff for over 6 weeks. Truth be told, all Accentures management system started
collapsing at that moment. In 2007 Accenture Spain had roughly 10,000 workers, their aim was
to get to 14000 people and nowadays they are little over 7000. No lean management system,
no closed loop control in intermediate phases and problems will only arise at very late stages
when turning things round is extremely more complicated.

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One of the main focuses of lean management is eliminating waste and to do so an organization
must identify areas where such waste might be originating. Mary Poppendieck established 7
(seven) potential waste areas: overproduction, inventory, exta processing steps, motion,
defects, waiting and transportation (Poppendieck, 2002). Workers involved in the field of Lean
management should start by examining processes in the referred areas as well as having a
through look into Supply Chain Management techniques and tools.
This management system creates transparency across all management levels of a company. All
decision making processes will gain from these closed loop cycles be it in production or
development. Mistakes are found early into their life, responsibilities are easily tracked and
TMT will have access to reports which show clearly what is being done, when and by whom.
Such transparency helps managing and helps in reacting to market changes. Speed is crucial
these days as is to give the consumer what he wants before he changes to a substitute product.
Having the consumer in mind all the time and reacting fast will allow the company to increase
revenue by giving the market what it wants when it wants, instead of pushing it to him. Such
system will promote a better service and as such the retention rate will be higher, which is part
of the Reputation Management objectives.
Workers will as well come out benefited as their input will be taken into consideration,
responsibility increased and if the revenue of the company is higher so will the bonuses be at
the end of the year.
So the 5 principles to take in consideration are: eliminate waste, empower workers (obtaining
feedback from front-line workers), immediate costumer order fulfillment (delivering early
rather than late), optimize value chain and foster employee loyalty. (Devaraja, 2011)
Lean promotes happier workers and client satisfaction and that is Corporate Reputation
Management at its best.

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b/ Top Management Teams

Top Management Teams are always considered as good and applauded while revenue keeps
growing and structure is not touched by awkward happenings which glitch its own seriousness;
as a team, as a structure and as a corporation. While the sea is flat and the gentle breeze hits
the sales, anyone can be be considered as being a good captain. It is only when the company,
for one reason or another, finds itself on any of the four quadrants of Figure 1 (Annex a) that
the TMT skills come to play and actually play an important part in the survival of the animal
that the corporation can be compared to. It must feed from the market (sell and make profit)
and growonce hurt, it must find its own medicine and take the chosen remedies (TMT
decisions) to recover from its ailments.
Like a storm can rock a boat into a small scare or into sinking, a moment of crisis can damage or
kill a company. That difference in outcome will be a direct consequence of the TMTs ability to
react to the abnormal situation. For such to happen the TMT should have in place a crisis
management plan.
When the companys survival is at stake and the TMT did not drive the company towards safe
seas, shareholders often opt to change its composition. It is true that the CEO is usually the first
fatality but more often than not that is not the only position to be changed. When this
happens, shareholders are left with one out of two options: either to substitute with internal
people or to go externally to find a suitable candidate.
Such has been thoroughly studied, which option is the best: the internal or the external
alternative?
As per various studies compiled by Lorkhe in 2004, an internal alternative has shown to be a
more accurate choice in small disruptions as are the cyclical problems with which companies
might eventually be hit with as being problems relating directly to market cycles. On the other
hand, when the turn-around is an imperative of greater proportions due to bad results coming

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from bad options by TMT which lead to positions veering towards bankruptcy the choices with
the best average results were the ones when an external person was brought in to lead the
way.
Still, old studies generally centred around the profound change on both decision making and
structure change, while new studies base themselves on cost related appreciation. My
experience merges these two positions, old and new. I believe that tighter financial control
together with leaner structures (decision making structures) is the way out from the darker
scenarios.
Since April (of the present year of 2012) I have been working on a turnaround process for a
start-up company based in Geneva, Switzerland (Museeka S.A. www.museeka.com) whose
shareholders decided on cutting its head and re-structuring the TMT and, eventually, its
business. At this precise moment the decisions are being made and big changes have been
implemented both related to decision flow charts and with cost cutting (as in structure
downsizing) and closed loops product development cycles were implemented (Agile Scrum
methodology, led by Bernino Lind).
As well, one of the big problems this company was facing had to do with the personality of all 3
founders who were at the top of the company as CEO, CTO and CFO. All of them with major
personality traits tending to the mania which then, as things started going awkward led them to
absolute and profound delusion. For the last year they were selling the product as being ready
to ship and as if the market was ready to buy it when, actually, the product was not ready and
the market did not want the product. That attitude passed on to the team which believed that
that product was the next big thing to hit the market, refusing to acknowledge that companies
like Spotify, Pandora, Soundcloud and others as such had taken the market by storm a couple
of years before. They were all launched roughly at the same time but only the well organized
ones got to be winners.
This experience is demonstrating that part of what was presented and defended by Lorhke
makes sense. TMT psychological traits will affect the decision making and decision making

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process. Such will surely resonate in the overall strategy and will pass on to the team and in the
end, all those actions were decoded negatively by stakeholders and Museekas reputation was
worst than inexistent: it was bad. Expenditure had to be cut and a new decision making process
had to be adapted to save the company and the company needed, desperately, to put an ear to
the ground and give stakeholders what they wanted and not what the TMT thought they
wanted.
This said, Museekas Reputation Quotient - Annex a), Figure 3 - was failing to comply with its
most basic ideas as product was not presented to market, the financial performance was
catastrophic, there was no emotional appeal and the vision and leadership were not in sync
with the market.
As well, the Corporate Personality Scale (Annex a), Figure 2) helps us discover that the CEO
personality traits were absorbed by Museeka as per osmosis. The company was seen by service
providers, shareholders and 3 partners (one of which RonOrp, probably the most important
publication for live art events in Switzerland) as a very machista company (only men worked
there and from around 100 channels of music, none had been done thinking on the female
audience), as a ruthless company (all founders came from big companies and were doing
business as if Museeka was as big as their previous employers) and besides all these, Museeka
also failed miserably in what concerned to being looked at as a chic product (prestige).
Shareholders are a part of the stakeholders group and this group is ultimately the one
responsible for decoding all interactions into Reputation. If a turnaround is needed it means
that the company started affecting negatively its stakeholders. The ones feeling it in their
pockets are usually the suppliers and the shareholders. Shareholders are the ones who have
the power to directly intervene. In this case they did so by dissolving the Board of Directors and
hiring external help. With such a decision they expected for one special kind of suffering to be
put an end to: losing money.
Though slashing costs in the name of a better performance does not affect directly their
financial situation on the short term, it carries with it a subconscious message of relief

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whenever they see that the company is spending less to achieve more. They are the first target
of the new TMT (on this specific case) and they will be the first group to start raising the
reputation profile of Museeka again, so that then they have reasons to re-invest and the
company will have money to pay the suppliers. The later, when paid, will themselves have a
better and raised perception of the companys reputation. With the suppliers (Music providers)
in such a better position Museeka will start to give its clients, again, what they expected: Music.
After the clients are given access to what they paid for the Media will be addressed to. This will
complete the cycle of reputation awareness rising that shareholders were waiting for after
having decided to advance for a turn-around. All this said, in this specific case this company is
still pending on a very important decision which is to either maintain the brand or to do an
asset relocation and for the (slightly changed) product to be launched under a different brand
(for legal reasons).
As a note, the intervention on Museeka was made bearing in mind 2 very important principles:
Lean Management methodology and Scrum project Management for product development and
adaptation. These two were integrated after a new vision for product development arose when
the business model was readdressed by following Osterwalders business model canvas
(Osterwalder is an acquaintance of Bernino Lind, with whom I worked and to whom I address to
at the Thank You section). The result: we managed to change the product from music on
request to a radio model and the addressed market was changed from Europe and North
America to being MENA region.

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c/ Crisis Management

There are several happenings which might put ones reputation at stake. Those threats can
arise internally or externally and can be technical or socially originated - Annex a) Figure 1- . I
will be calling these; crisis moments.
A crisis moment can generally give rise to three different threats: 1) Public Safety, 2)Financial
Loss and 3)Reputation loss. (W. Timothy Coombs, 2007)
Analysing or anticipating those critical moments which will affect a companys reputation is not
always easy or possible (eg: a Natural disaster is seldom predictable). Still, such events are
generally divided into 5 different elements which might help avoiding future problems of the
same Nature as the one affecting a company at a given moment. These five elements are:
Signal Detection, Preparation/Prevention, Containment, Recovery and Learning. Depending on
the kind of crisis and its origin the Signal Detection can either be a succession of happenings
which can arise months prior to the crisis explosion or it can be the explosion in itself (as it
happens with Natural disasters). Preparation and Prevention are two sides of a same coin
which go hand-in-hand and can be, factually, the first step into recovery.
These five steps are no more than an adaptation to Mitroff and Coombs crisis management. As
per the later one, crisis management implies a 3 step approach: 1) Pre-crisis, 2) Crisis response,
and 3) Post-crisis. The pre-crisis phase encloses prevention and preparation. The crisis
response phase is when management must actually respond to a crisis. The post-crisis phase
analysis what was the crisis and how it was dealt with in order to better prepare for the next
crisis (W. Timothy Coombs, 2007).
Besides the event in itself that is the crisis moment, the following moments are as important or
even more important for the reputation of the company. The Media can perpetuate the
disaster hitting with each word a reputation which took much effort to be built. Media
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containment is probably one of the most important factors in managing a crisis. It is the media
that takes it to the larger group of people and it is the larger group of people who, collectively,
are responsible for making an evaluation and drawing the companys image. On the short
term it will probably hit the company on its revenue and on the long term, besides the revenue,
the reputation will have a big dent taken out of it.
As such, much of the work on how to prepare for a crisis is based on scenario envisaging and
preparing a step-by-step reaction for such possibilities.
With the previously stated what I intend to show is that an important first step for correctly
managing Corporate Reputation is to have a very well designed and thought through flow chart
for crisis management. For such plan not to be a one-time only preparation, it should follow
these rules: 1) have a crisis management plan and update it at least annually, 2) Have a
designated crisis management team that is properly trained, 3) Conduct and annual exercise to
test the plan and the team in charge and 4) Pre-draft select crisis management messages
including content for dark web sites and templates for crisis statements. Have the legal
department review and pre-approve these messages. (W. Timothy Coombs, 2007)
As stated by G.Abatecola: Crises are times of emotion. A purely rational response may not be
enough to protect a reputation. Going what appears to be one step TOO far may be the only
way to respond to emotive aspects of a crisis as nowadays convergence of globalization has
any wrongdoing on the spotlight nano-seconds after the happening. I am referring to both
the professional media as to the online citizen-journalism. Nowadays there are daily attacks on
companies and corporations. There are no companies above that risk and there is barely a way
to keep an attack from seeing the day light; it is the reaction to it that will make the difference
between just being attacked or falling into a crisis.
While I was working for the WEF as Manager of the Community of Technology Pioneers the
world market crashed with a starting point that was very dear to me: Lehman Brothers filing
for chapter 11. Lehman Brothers was one of the main Strategic Partners of the WEF and we
were days away from opening the Annual Meeting of Global Champions in Tianjin (China) when

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phones started ringing relentlessly, literally 24 hours a day, as constituents of my community

were from all over the World. These were the C-levels from companies such as Mint.com
(Aaron Patzer), Mozilla Foundation (Mitchel Baker), 23&Me (Linda Avey), Calvin Chin (Qifang
Inc) and many more worried about how such events would affect the their chance of finding
investors throughout the 10 days of closed doors meetings. BusinessWeek, Time, WSJ,
FinancialTimes, Seed Magazine and much more, contacting me asking how would the start-ups
that I represented be affected by the fear that was installing itself among the investors and
partners that would be present at the meeting.
At that moment Andre Schneider called for an emergency meeting for Community managers
and showed us the plan he had prepared in advance for the eventuality of a world economical
crisis and for which all of us had contributed, each of the managers having to think and adapt
the plan to its own community. He showed us the Annual Report prepared by the WEF (that we
all had) and told us that we only had to explain to our constituents that on the last 2 annual
reports, the WEF had already tried to draw the attention to a big crisis that was just about to
happen. We had to show them that we had a contingency plan on which we worked every 3
months. We had an extensive agenda ready to be implemented on the first big meeting
following a possible crash. This being transmitted to us, I only had to communicate my
companies that they should not be scared of fleeing investors and that they should definitely
attend the meeting as the new after crisis agenda would throw to the table many discussions
whose topic would be catered around new shifts of economical power and new ways to invest
to the usual discussion panels, round tables and presentations.
As incredible as it might seem, the WEF came out of the crisis with a stronger image due to its
COO readiness to face a huge moment of crises, much more than the CEO (the honourable Prof.
Klaus Schwab). His envisaging of the scenario and managing the team of managers into
preparing for it made people look at the WEF as a place where economical content was
generated with much more precision than previously accepted and the Annual reports started
being discussed by stakeholders rather than going straight to a shelve whenever they got them
delivered to a partners office.

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This external originated crisis was well dealt with because the World Economic Forum had a
very strong TMT which had never stopped preparing for a situation of crisis. Its flat structure
(not Lean...but flat) made it easy for us to discuss and prepare the reaction and the media team
guided each and every one of us (community managers) throughout the media contacts.
Heading this team both Mark Adams (nowadays International Olympic Committee
spokesperson) and Matthias Luefkens (nowadays head of media relations at BursonM) coached
us to perfection.

Crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind. Chinese proverb.

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d) Corporate Social Responsibility

This discipline has been gaining up momentum as companies reach out for their communities in
order to change peoples perception of their business or operations. Nowadays companies
want and need to be likable as such will have a direct repercussion on the financial results.

There are many case studies which show us different approaches and different reasons for each
of the companies to follow the path of Corporate Responsibility. Though this discipline started
being exploited by companies who had a negative image, nowadays we have companies who
start developing their Social Responsibility programs without the intention of hiding some
shady action on their operations. The intention is showing that the company is more concerned
with its own impact in the society from which it feeds. If the impact is a positive one the
company will surely see it reflected in the balance sheet by the end of the month.

Social responsibility should be on the top of the head of all TMTs whenever taking a decision of
strategic significance because, whichever decision makes to the newspapers and ears of people
is a decision which will be decoded either as good or bad. If it is bad, the companys image is
dented and to recover it there will be a long way to walk. It is easy to lose a good image but
very hard to build a good and strong one.

TMTs should have present that Corporate Social Responsibility is no more than respecting the
people and the area in which its operations take place. It is all about business ethics. There are
various reasons for such tendency to have sprouted and spread, being that the main ones are:
globalization, internationalization, internet, new trends in the dynamics of consumption and
the media. (Michelini, 2012).

On a theoretical basis there are several explanations for why a company does it or why one
should follow CSR but on the end it is the Stakeholders Theory by Donaldson and Preston Annex a) Figure 4- the one all TMTs should have as a reference.

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A company is not expected to stop having profit, such would go against the companys true
nature but this being said the European Commission published a definition of what this multistakeholder approach is. In 2001 they defined it as A concept whereby companies integrate
social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with
their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. This definition was recently replaced (in 2011) by a
shorter one: the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on societies.

2 of the companies where I worked so far had important CSR departments and programmes,
though for reasons which were very different. Accenture has several social programs running at
any given time in an effort to change the perception the general public has of the company
(responsible for advising companies on how to reduce costs and increase margins...meaning,
responsible for helping companies to downsize). On the other hand, the World Economic
Forums approach to CSR was very centred around Switzerland with special focus on Geneva
and Davos. These 2 organizations have very different purposes and still they both use some of
the CSR principles in pursuit of their objectives.

Now, unlike these organizations which started their operations and then at a certain time in the
future they decided to develop CSR programs Savanza was launched having in mind a business
model which depended and relied on a very important and needed social aspect. This company
is not a company with a for-profit business model which will be using some of its profits to help
society. This company has a clear for-profit business model which will only work if it presents
people with solutions to their problems. The mission is democratizing the access to vocational
and higher education and it does so by helping people find donors/borrowers which will make
money available for them to pay for their studies.

Corporate Social Responsibility should be one of the driving forces behind companies. That
being achieved, the reputation of a brand will surely be stronger and financial gains will spring.

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7/ CONCLUSION

Much more than managing a reputation, one creates a reputation. It is the relentless day-today activity that creates the conditions for interactions to be decoded as reputation. Still,
there are moments in which, rather than creating you are indeed managing it, namely on crisis
moments.
Crisis moments can always sprout out of the blue, especially if they are originated by external
factors. Internal factors can and should be well controlled in order to minimize the possibility of
crisis situation outbreak.
Lean management is one good approach to managing a company in a way which both internal
and external factors are constantly controlled by using a closed loop cycle in the development
of product or business. Always having a closed loop circuit in checking both product
development and market circumstances should alone minimize the chances of a crisis to arise
in the inner sphere of the organization. For such a management system to be put in place the
TMT shall be open minded and rely on the workforce under it as it (workforce) is crucial for
the constant do- check- improve that lean management is all about.
If lean methodology is correctly implemented and there is a defined Crisis Management Team
which regularly meets to envisage new crisis scenarios, whenever a crisis sprouts all the
company structure will be ready to react and such a fast reaction will surely lead to a fast way
out of troubled waters. Should this reaction be an action of perfect anticipation prepared and
envisaged by the crisis team, more often than not, the companys image will come out stronger
and its identity will be carved deeper into its workers.
With all the previously stated, if lean methodology is implemented correctly it means that the
TMT will probably be more flexible and more reliant on its workforce than most TMTs (on most

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big companies) and crisis situations will also be managed on a swifter way with the
participation of all useful brain cells the company has had working for.
Lean Thinking businesses respond immediately to customer requests and optimize across the
value chain. Today businesses in diverse industries have adopted the smart business practices
of Lean Thinking. These principles are beneficial to small businesses as well as to global
corporations.
All in all, what is demonstrated by the present dissertation is that Corporate Reputation
Management is a lot more than a couple of PR tricks and it can be addressed to as overall
management in itself. If product development, production and marketing are transparent, and
checked regularly in order for problems and faults to be addressed swiftly in order for the
equilibrium of both inner and outer organizational sphere to be maintained (in other words, for
the companys output to be what the market needs) all stakeholders needs will be answered to
...and happy stakeholders is all what Reputation Management is all about!
All in all, if a company has a Lean corporate structure with open minded top management team
it means that the structure will be ready to react to market changes immediately. Reacting fast
to the market is, simply, being fast to give the market what the market wants. If a company
achieves this balance (selling what it produces with minimum waste) the vast majority of
stakeholders will be happy. Being on such a spot, the company just has to be careful on the
paths it chooses to follow in order to achieve its purposes (producing in China and exploring
under aged? Having the headquarters in a tax-free country? Bonuses for TMTs? etc..). As all
decisions are, one way or the other, messages that will be decoded by stakeholders, all
strategic decisions shall be pondered upon before taken. It is this pondering that is crucial part
of the crisis management team input. In the referred situation such anticipation would mostly
cover crisis situations arising from the inner sphere of the company. This mentioned; the same
team will have to envisage situations which can arise externally as well.
All this to bring us to the point in which I adamantly defend that good and effective Corporate
Reputation Management is only possible when an organization has a structure where

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responsibilities are easily attributed (simple rather than complex organizational structures
Flat and Lean management), when the Top Management Team is correctly adapted to Lean(er)
and Flat(er) Principles, when Corporate Social Responsibility is developed on a pro-active
fashion and when the Crisis Management Team is active and part of the strategic decision
making process as this team is the one better prepared to envisage problems in the future.
In a nutshell: a company who has a TMT whose work is based on a flat structure, Lean
principles, Social responsibility acumen and has a well rounded Crisis Management Team
which is part of all decision making processes...is a company which has all the tools in place to
be a company with a strong reputation.
A strong and good reputation will lay a path heading for profits as well as it will be responsible
for the companys valuation increase through a higher goodwill.

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8/ Bibliography

Coomb,

W.

Timothy

Crisis

Management

and

Communications

http://www.instituteforpr.org/topics/crisis-management-and-communications/
Devaraja, T.S. (2011) Electronic Supply Chain Management and Model Development
Global Perspective
http://sibresearch.org/uploads/2/7/9/9/2799227/sibr_-_working_paper_-_scm_final.pdf

Klewes, Joachim and Wreschniok, Robert (2010).Reputation Capital: Building and

Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century (small extracts found online)
Lean Enterprise Institute
Lohrke, Franz T; Bedeian, Arthur G.

and Palmer, Timothy B., The role of top

management teams in formulating and implementing turnaround strategies:

a review and research agenda
http://www.bus.lsu.edu/bedeian/articles/tmtijmr%2004.pdf
Michelini, Lara (ISCEM master class material 2012)
Osterwalder. Alexander and Pigneur, Yves; Business Model Generation (2011)
Poppendieck, Mary, Principles of Lean Thinking (2002)
http://meidling.jvpwien.at/uploads/media/LeanThinking.pdf

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9/ Annexes
Annex a)

FIGURE 1

(Graph taken from Corporate Reputation Management Master class group work presentation.
Case: Research in Motion. Complete work presented as ANNEX /b)

FIGURE 2

(Graph: Corporate Personality Scale by Davis, 2001)

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FIGURE 3

(Graph: The reputation Quotient by Fombrum, 2000)

FIGURE 4

(Graph: Stakeholders Theory by Donaldson and Preston 1995)

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ANNEX /b

1
2

MISSION STATEMENT
or should we call it a statement about their mission?!
When contacting RIM headquarters directly about their vision and mission
statement we got a flabbergasting/jaw-dropping: RIM does not have a
vision/mission statement that is publicly available

Nuno Coelho Martins

Hugo Rosa

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

3
4

Facts & Figures

Case Study

BRAND: BlackBerry

2011 Financials

PRODUCTS:
Software:
Mdaemon (SMTP/POP3 mail servers)
Security Gateway (SMTP spam firewall )
6 O& 7 Os series
RelayFax
BB messender

Revenue: $19,9 Billion USD (+33.1% over the

prior year)
R&D - 6,8% of 2011 revenue
Sales & Mrktg 12,1% of 2011 revenue
R&D, Sales &Mrktg: $3,751 Billion USD
NET INCOME: $3,410 Billion USD

Product delivery methods

Tablet
Smartphones
Acessories

Total Assets: $12,875 Billion USD (+20,5% from

2010)

Hidden product : SMTP/POP3 Mailing service

through own servers

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

Research In Motion (RIM) is a global leader in wireless innovation. It revolutionized the

mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry solution in 1999 (a delivery
vehicle for its software products).
The BlackBerry product line includes the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software for both
individuals and businesses, the award-winning BlackBerry smartphones and accessories.
BlackBerry products and services are used by millions of customers around the world to
stay connected to the content that matter most.
RIM has been loosing stock value (close to 80%) through out the last years but this
decline did only rouse its leadership when a sudden system failure kept their own servers
from delivering RIMs differentiating productthe email service. Only then did the
company fall on a crisis that led to the recent step-down of both joint-CEOs.

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

44 | P a g e

5
6

Threats to reputation

Horizon Crisis
Within types of reputation crisis

BB usage health hazard

Social

fraud investigation
ENRON

WTC attack

Research In Motion

KATRINA hurricane

lack of products and processes

innovation
SSF System Service Failure

Technical

Internal

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

External

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

From decline to crisis

Media s comments escalation and response

Decline - April to October lack of competitiveness and presences only on

specialized financial and IT media.
Crisis October 10th 3 day server blackout affecting about 70 million users

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

October:
Crisis
Complacency
CEO Press
release
Users contacted
@ BBM

November:
Turnaround in
sight
RIM tries to
clean up the act
by presenting
plans for 2012

December: media keeps January: turn-around

2 month stretch
Blackout
Lack of strong plans for
future
RIM said to have lost
over 1M users

Joint CEOs step down.

New CEO presents
plans for 2012,
including new apparel
development

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

45 | P a g e

10
9
Actionable Outputs

5 Elements of Reputation analysis

Learnings

Signal Detection
March/April
R&D problems in
development of
new handhelds.
October:
General system
failure on SMTP
and POP3 service
delivery

Preparation /
Prevention
IT tracking
and mending.
Resetting of
servers (failed)

Containment
Users
contacted
Close followup of service
systems

Recovery

Crisis deliverables:

Learnings

NOT
ACCOMPLISHED

Stronger system
maintenance
Backup servers
ready to go-live
at all times.
Quicker reaction
to negative
events

Stronger system
maintenance
Backup servers
ready to go-live
at all times.
Quicker reaction
to negative
events

Team responsible for crisis management &

communication must be trained to act fast.
Decision channels map created.
IT maintenance ready to start backup
servers at any time. Sort of 3 laired ERP...but
for SMTP/POP3 servers.
Critical areas of system clearly identified for
quicker tracking of future problems
Crisis still being managed

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

ISCEM Strategic Marketing Master Program 2011/2012

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

Nuno C Martins / Hugo Rosa

46 | P a g e

Anex c)
Museeka

ANNEX d)
Savanza

47

ANNEX e)
WEF

ANNEX f)
Accenture

48

ANNEX g)

49

ANNEX /h

50

ANNEX /i

51

52