The overall theme addressed by Dr. Cees B.M. Van Riel (Professor Corporate Communication, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands, and Vice Chairman of Reputation Institute), Joroen Overgoor (General Manager Corporate Communications, Eneco, The Netherlands) and Sofía Fernández de Mesa (General Manager Corporate Communication, Telefónica S.A., Spain) is the effect that the financial crisis has had on reputation management and how to ensure that efforts dedicated in this area have a positive impact on the company’s perception and stakeholder relations.
The financial crisis has thrown the marketplace into chaos, leaving companies looking for safe ground and falling back into traditional reputation management, corporate communication (relying much more on PR), and CSR policies. Dr. Van Riel has witnessed a general avoidance around these areas that became altogether a form of corporate silence, and which have finally evolved into some shy initiatives. For Mr. Overgoor, the radical change in the energy landscape provoked by the crisis meant that the sustainability positioning the company had established made it at once difficult to maintain such a business objective while facing a very cost-conscious society. Finally for Mrs. Fernández de Mesa, many critics believed and argued the necessity to focus on business services and to drop CSR programs.
Dr. Van Riel advised the audience of three main points to reputation management during this crisis: (1) enact fact-based actions which means preserving fact gathering research activities; (2) use expressive communication; and (3) most importantly, focus on earning the license to operate.
Mr. Overgoor set into motion a series of activities in Eneco aimed at converting the situation into an opportunity, namely:
- To further strengthen the sustainability positioning for which he embarked upon by an internal branding campaign designed to align employees and turn them into ambassadors of the company
- Through planned visits to sustainable projects such as windmill fields for customers,
- By setting up content-rich shareholder dialogue meetings and corporate client meetings, as well as an realized an overall communication campaign in the media.
Ms. Fernández de Mesa and Telefónica further developed CSR, creating a new version that goes beyond a focus on reporting, joining associations and forums, investing in disperse social causes, creating and complying with Code of Conduct principles, and multi-stakeholder dialogue. The new thinking links CSR strategy to the P&L by turning social activity into a business investment perspective, not just a philanthropic one. Specifically for Telefónica it meant abandoning the traditional “give back to society” reason for CSR, and adopting a philosophy of using social investment as R&D: lowering operational cost and managing reputational risks, increasing revenues through social inclusion which uses the positive impact of ITCs as a driver for community progress. The end goal being socially responsible through programs and activities that are relevant to the business.
In this way, each participant in the first plenary session of Reputation Institute’s 13th Conference on Corporate Reputation, Brand, Identity and Competitiveness shared through his or her experience how the financial crisis has affected reputation and how both Eneco and Telefónica are demonstrating and communicating, as Dr. Van Riel wisely advises all companies, “who they are”, instead of “how great they are”.
