Michael D. Moberly, Principal, Founder, kpstrat December 6, 2023
Business reputation risks can be virtuous, nefarious, ideological, and/or competitive, and materialize and cascade asymmetrically, throughout enterprises @ keystroke speeds, @ the will, timing, and ‘likes-shares’ of others, locally, regionally, nationally, institutionally, and internationally. Reputation and Its Risks (hbr.org)
Business reputations are valuable and public intangible (non-physical) assets to differentiate and accentuate reasons, advantages, qualities, conveniences, pricings, and operating culture,
Business reputations are beneficial to leaders, appeal to customers, buyers, users, and investors, and translate for competitiveness, valuation, revenue generation, durability, and resilience.
Business reputations can become liabilities when left unattended, exhibit inflexibility, dismiss entrées of risk, and/or presume a generational relevance, by…
- distracting, disadvantaging, and causing doubt.
- impeding momentum, operating culture, investment to deliver R&D and/or rollout new products, or services, or achieve clemency if/when needed.
Business reputation risks can materialize as…
- full-frontal allegations, accusations, and/or condemnations, i.e., persons, actions, inactions, associations, or initiatives.
- unintended errors, e.g., mis-speak and/or mis-presence of leaders and/or localized outgrowths to larger issues which targets’ hold direct or tangential association.
- dramatic revelations – exposé which presume – oblige replies, e.g., debate, deny, refute, rebut, or defend.
Business reputational (brand) risk frequently include ‘points of personal drama’ to amplify attention and potential distribution. When same are accompanied by (timely, relevant, and verifiable) open-source links, ala video – audio,
- may tempt-invite-incentivize more adverse utterances which exacerbate the initial (reputation) risks, i.e., duration and cost of mitigation.
Targets and leader perspectives about motivations, causations, reactions, and mitigation strategies to materialized business reputational (brand) risks are encouraged to avoid presuming there are ‘one-size-fits-all’ remedies. That’s because…
- duration, intensity, and criticality of reputation – brand risks are often driven externally and respond accordingly, and
- reputation (brand) fragility – vulnerability has elevated across sectors, in part due to the availability of platforms/venues, allure of outcomes, and arrogance of motivations.
Hence, simplistic inferences that sources and motives, and outcomes of public utterances which create business reputation (brand) risk are readily – similarly amenable to (internal) scouring affects, erasures, and/or re-framing, is less probable and practical.
We are obliged to be mindful that business reputational (brand) risk can…
- escalate virally, deescalate, dissipate, and/or reignite asymmetrically @ keystroke speeds when-if ‘contributors’ project a favorable audience, i.e., return-benefit…‘it ain’t over, until it’s over’.
- translate (qualitatively, quantitatively, and publicly) to asses-measure, and distinguish (business) valuation, competitive advantage, revenue generation capability-capacity, wealth creation potential, and leadership contributions.
Characterizing business reputation (brand) risks as being quickly containable or sustainably erasable are attractive simplifications which this business intangible asset strategist and risk mitigator encourage be replaced with – supplemented by…
- awareness, monitoring, and mitigation to reflect vulnerability, susceptibility, exposure, probability, and criticality of arrays of origins and indeterminate durations of reputational – brand adversities, because,
- reputation (brand) risks can reverberate – escalate globally, suddenly mitigate or reignite asymmetrically at keystroke speeds, especially when-if the ‘speaker’ senses favorable, replicable, and sustainable returns. https://www.amazon.com/Know-What-You-Dont-paperback/dp/0134177010
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