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Book Review -- Reputation Management

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Reputation Management – The Key to Successful Public Relations and Corporate Communications – John Doorley, Helio Fred Garcia; Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 270 Madison Ave, NY, NY 10016; wwww.routledge-ny.com; 456 p, May 2006; $45.

Book Review -- Reputation Management

It is almost a tragedy that Doorley and Garcia have to compile and write a book on reputation management.

But it says something about the state of our society, business/industry, our chosen career field and world as a whole.

However, it is extremely impressive – and powerful – that these two excellent authors have been able to enlist such an impressive list of contributing authors who are willing to share their experience, insights and information so freely.

There isn’t an organization or individual that won’t say a quality, honest reputation is their most valuable asset. And at the time they say it…they mean it!

Unfortunately somewhere between that statement and actions reputation management often takes a back seat.

Packed in the 456 pages is some of the finest discussion of reputation management and its importance we’ve read. The great thing is that Doorley, Garcia and their contributing authors cover the subject from every aspect – media relations, employee communications, investor relations, daily interpersonal relations.

You don’t have to read the entire book.

You don’t have to try to convince your board of directors or management team to read the entire book.

But the first chapter on the subject of reputation management, what it is, the precepts and how we confuse it from time to time with performance and behavior is must reading for anyone in the field.

The chapter is only 21 pages but they are 21 pages you need to find some way for management to read as well.

While Doorley and Garcia write in an easy-to-read conversational manner, perhaps their greatest contribution in delivering Reputation Management is to obtain the assistance and cooperation of respected professionals to share their thoughts, ideas, recommendations and lessons. This is not a studious book of theory or something that college students should study and memorize when preparing for an exam. The book covers practical, real life problems and issues such as leaked memos, unfair press coverage, negative rumors and more. In addition, rather than simply spelling out all the issues and problems, the authors give you practical solutions to the problems that you can use when similar events occur in your professional career.

While both authors are now professors at NYU, Reputation Management is not an educators' effort. They have drawn heavily from their business careers.

What makes this book even more valuable is the fact that they have enticed or convinced leading professionals the share real-world experience in every chapter. They share their experience and insights in a way that isn’t preaching or holier-than-thou approach…it is simply an honest assessment of their experience in the business world. It is an analysis of what their CEOs and executives did right and wrong. It is a look at what they did right and wrong.

While we found Reputation Management to be a valuable compilation of real situation experience that any professional can quickly put to use, we also believe it is the type of text we wish we had available when we were getting our degrees and just starting out. It probably would have saved us from making a number of mistakes early in our career.

The biggest challenge the authors – and all of us in public relations – face is how to get the book and its many practical concepts into the hands of corporate management. More importantly, is the gnawing question of how do we ensure we each put the ideas, recommendations and use-proven guidelines to work on a daily basis?

We’re pretty certain that the people who guided Enron and other firms that have been wracked by scandals started out with the idea that they would do evil. We’re equally certain that management at HP, Sony, Siemens, Merck and others that have seen their firms’ reputations tarnished moved forward with the idea they were going to do anything that was not in the best interest of the company, the employees, the shareholders or the buying public.

But it happened. And it will happen again no matter how good the intentions.

So the value of Reputation Management to you is that it examines in a conversational manner the occurrences. The authors discuss in easy-to-understand terms what was done that was wrong and what that was done that was right.

Most important is that the book and all of its authors give you the valuable tools you need to understand, value, manage and measure your reputation – personal, professional and organizational.

As a professional in the field, you’ll want to read all 456 pages…perhaps more than once.

As a consultant to your management, you’ll want to get them to read the first 21 pages of the book to understand and appreciate that their reputation and the organization’s has real value that can be measured on the firm’s bottomline.

Consciously or subconsciously they will take into consideration the first chapter when they are developing and carrying out their actions…their decisions.


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