“Boards are taking the peril of the loss of their companies’ good names more seriously ….” So says a recent article on CFO.com that cites Boards of Directors’ concern about reputational risk for the second straight year.
If Boards are concerned about corporate reputations, might that not signal that CFOs ought to also be concerned about – and engaged in – mitigating individual reputational risk?
Taken together, the top areas of concern in reputational risk are product quality, liability, and customer satisfaction, at 39%. Second is a combination of concerns about integrity, fraud, ethics, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which totaled 24%.
In personal reputation management, product quality, liability, and customer service is all about you!
— How do you perform as a problem-solver? Leader? Member of the executive management team?
— What liabilities, if any, will the company be assuming by hiring you?
— Customer service = bottom line … and your customers are shareholders, investors, and the Board.
Asked how they identify risks, 22% say they receive reports from executive management, 18% regularly discuss risk issues during board meetings, 16% rely on professional support or advice from outside experts, and 11% get information from a risk committee.
Where do prospective employers (and their Boards) get their information about you? Is it accurate? Consistent? Are you driving the messaging, or reacting to the message?
Corporate reputation (and risk) is a reflection of its executive management team. What is your contribution? Who knows about it?