Managing Reputational Risk: Curbing Threats, Leveraging Opportunities

"Many books have been written on reputation management, which position it as the prime focus of the public relations department and its spin doctors," begins the author here. "This book is different." And so it is. Managing Reputational Risk operates from the premise that employees and managers, not hired guns and spinmeisters, are the only ones who can forward an organization's good reputation. Not many business books get more thorough than this. Sections cover everything from tone-setting by the board, to prioritizing and responding to risks, to internal audits and transparent reporting, to building a "sustainable" model of corporate behavior. There is also a twelve-step plan for implementing a code of business ethics. Not to be read at one sitting, this book is appropriate for dipping into when threats and opportunities arise. The key point: How other people perceive your business will lead you to success or failure. As William Buffet is quoted as saying, "It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to destroy it."