Features of business reputation management

Recently, the problem of forming a positive reputation has become very relevant.

And this is no coincidence: without a positive business reputation today it is impossible to achieve long-term and sustainable economic success.

There are dozens different definitions corporate reputation, some of which call it a significant intangible asset of the company. Scientists have even developed various methods that allow us to evaluate this seemingly unquantifiable concept. Many companies are ready to fight for their good name in court, others believe that it is theirs. competitive advantage. However, efforts to manage this very reputation are not always effective. Why does this happen, and what is meant by business reputation management?

Deny that corporate reputation plays a role today significant role, it is forbidden. It is also obvious that it is actually an intangible asset that can bring additional income to the company. And, of course, everyone is familiar with the definition of reputation itself, which is a collective opinion about a person or company, which is formed over time in the minds of target groups based on an expert assessment of the social, economic and environmental aspects of its activities.

Reputation exists regardless of the desire of the company, so the main task of business is reputation management. It cannot be allowed to form spontaneously; it must be ensured that society’s attitude towards the company is the way it wants it to be. At the same time, the role of reputation directly depends on the market situation: the higher the competition, the higher value has a good reputation.

How can we make the funds and efforts aimed at improving or creating a positive business reputation work as efficiently as possible?

Without a good reputation you can't go anywhere

The purposeful formation of business reputation begins from the moment when the head of the company understands that reputation and image have a material side. At this point it actually becomes an intangible asset. If there is no such understanding, then the situation begins to resemble PR activities of the mid-90s of the last century. At that time, it was especially chic to have a PR specialist on staff, and this despite the fact that the scope of his work was not clear even to the company’s management. But the presence of such a specialist meant that the company had reached a certain level and could be trusted. Therefore, companies hired employees who were essentially useless and who did not even have any special responsibilities.

The rule “it is necessary means it is necessary” still often works in matters of business reputation management. And in order to avoid situations from the past, the company’s management needs to make a decision, develop a strategy and a clear step-by-step plan corporate reputation management. After this, PR specialists and other company employees need to be involved in the management process, since business reputation management includes not only the work of a PR specialist, whose task is mainly to create an appropriate information background, but also the work of customer service departments, customer service departments, etc. d. It is obvious that the client’s opinion about the company is formed in accordance with the impression he gets when communicating with a specific employee. If, for example, a sales manager was rude to him, then the client will clearly have a negative attitude towards the company.

Many experts believe that the corporate reputation management strategy should be clearly stated in the corporate governance code and other documents related to corporate culture.

In addition, you need to understand the meaning of the mission for the company. When it is clearly formulated, it becomes much easier for even the smallest manager to solve many problems. An example is the Volvo company, whose main mission is to produce respectable and safe cars. If one of its engineers unexpectedly creates a certain mechanism that increases the speed of the car to 360 km/h, then he immediately remembers the safety mission and abandons his decision, since it negatively affects safety, and therefore contradicts the main mission of the company .

From the above, we can draw the following conclusion: it is simply impossible to manage something that neither the company itself nor its management considers important and does not try to convey this to all employees.

Changes from within

This stage is logical continuation previous one. When management has realized the need to manage reputation, the company may face the following danger: making exclusively external changes in the company’s work that do not affect its internal components.

In such a situation, management may believe that they are managing reputation because positive reviews of the company appear in the media, the company participates in exhibitions, sends out press releases, carries out charitable activities. However, all these measures do not particularly affect the company’s image among the “ordinary population.”

The reason here is that in order to form a positive corporate reputation, it is necessary to pay attention not only to external, but also to internal changes. Moreover, internal positive changes in the company’s work are a priority.

First of all, the company must change itself, become closer to employees and clients, then these groups of people will begin to evaluate its work positively. You should not rely solely on the work of the PR service, the possibilities of which are far from unlimited. It may not always influence public opinion, especially if the company pays too little attention to fundamental functions.

Let's imagine a situation where a company has problems with personnel management - working conditions are poor, employees quit, social guarantees do not apply. In such a situation, every employee who leaves a given enterprise will speak unflatteringly about it, which will cause noticeable damage to the company’s image. A similar situation can occur in the sales department: when a customer is not satisfied with the quality of service, he will definitely mention this in the business community, and then all the efforts in reputation management will be wasted.

People began to pay attention to internal reputation not so long ago. However, many companies still do not quite understand who exactly should create the internal image of the company - the PR department or the HR service. Meanwhile, this function can be assigned to the manager internal communications, whose task is to create a corporate brand that is attractive to company employees.

IN modern conditions It is extremely important that the image formed by the internal audience corresponds to the one that should be conveyed to the external one. Without this, it is difficult to create a positive image and carry out effective reputation management.

Facing the consumer

Today you can still encounter the fact that many companies regard reputation as an important factor exclusively in relations with shareholders, investors, and banks. This approach is good for short-term profit, but does it have long-term prospects?

The answer to this question is unequivocal - no. Disproportionate distribution of attention among market participants is another serious tactical mistake in business reputation management. For example, the main actions to improve business reputation occur in relation to the media, business partners and investors, and end consumers do not fit into this picture.

The situation is such that the overwhelming majority of companies focus on GR, IR, media, business partners and financial institutions. At this time, employees (former and current) and end consumers form their negative opinion about the company and spread it. All these aspects of business reputation are interconnected, but are independent. So, the opinion of the means mass media can shape public opinion, and can also reflect it. If the authorities view the company negatively, then investors are likely to consider working with it too risky. As a rule, state-owned enterprises enjoy the favor of the authorities, but consumers' opinions about them are not always clear.

In creating a positive business reputation, those who usually succeed are those who direct their actions not only to the media, partners and investors, but also to the end consumer, whose influence on the company’s reputation is especially great today.

In this regard, companies can be advised to approach the issue of reputation management more carefully when working with different audiences. It is best to plan appropriate events for each audience, then work in this direction will be more effective.

PR white, PR black

Equally important is the selection of appropriate tools for reputation management. It's no secret that a large number of companies resort to the use of so-called “black” or negative PR methods.

As a rule, “black” PR refers to paid publications in the media that contain biased or unreliable information, most often with a negative connotation. At the same time, the reader may not realize that this material was made to order. This method is used not only in socio-political journalism, but also in business journalism. They usually resort to it when problems arise between individuals or companies. conflict situations.

If company management wants to succeed in building a positive corporate reputation, then the use of inappropriate practices in their work must be avoided. Even if today your “unclean” moves go unnoticed, tomorrow they may well turn against you.

Working for reputation

If you really want to create a positive reputation for your company, then you will have to work on this constantly, throughout its existence. At the same time, you need to be aware that long-term results are always more important than short-term benefits.

As an example, consider a certain company that in the mid-90s of the last century did not always use fair methods in relation to its competitors. The management explained this approach by the fact that then there were completely different times, and no one thought about long term prospects. Therefore, the company often took money from clients, but did not fulfill its obligations to them. The company successfully survived the “ Time of Troubles"and continues to work to this day. It is clear that the old methods of work are a thing of the past, and the management has long since changed. But the reputation of the company, which cannot be trusted, remains. And now it is not clear what can be done to reverse this situation.

Remember, it takes years to earn a good reputation, but it only takes five minutes to lose it. Therefore, it is very important to pay special attention possible errors and potential risks in this issue. As a rule, they are associated with underestimation by top managers of this component of the business, as well as with miscalculations in building communication.

The most common mistakes include insufficient attention on the part of company management to reputation management and the lack of a clear strategy in this matter. You cannot base reputation management on situational factors; it is important to think through a comprehensive strategy, parameters for assessing reputation, and its monitoring. In creating a positive reputation, one cannot limit oneself to working only with external audiences; it is necessary to implement a competent reputation policy within the company. What the company's top managers say in their press releases must necessarily correspond to what ordinary employees say.

Classmates

From this article you will learn:

• What is corporate reputation management?
• Where does managing a company's business reputation begin?
• How does the management itself take place?
• How to manage a company's reputation from black PR on the Internet
• How to set up company reputation management in a sensitive offline situation

In the 90s of the last century, new trends emerged and took a leading position in the global economy. In the first decade of the 21st century, entrepreneurship was exposed to various risks. Today, according to experts, the business world is in the so-called “reputational” zone. The crisis has affected sales tactics based on short-term gain. Consumers began to pay attention not only to the offer and its cost, but also to the reputation, manner of doing business and the social significance of a certain business. Opinion polls show that more than 60% of respondents make this choice. Therefore, for every manager striving for success and profitability of his business, control of the organization’s image should become a priority issue.

What is corporate reputation management?

The business honor of an enterprise is one of the types of intangible assets. This includes the perception of it and the owner by subcontractors, counterparties, consumers, and partners. These points can contribute to work and business development. This phenomenon is called the “good name” of the company. Reputation is usually considered as a component of non-property assets along with copyrights and a trade brand. Traditionally, it is measured by qualitative indicators, but it is also acceptable to use quantitative ones. Thus, it is possible to compare the difference between the profit of a given business company and the average level of income in the corresponding industry.

However, one should not mix such phenomena as “image” and “business reputation”, despite the fact that they are related.

Image- a superficial, usually artificially created image of an object in the minds of society in a short period of time. But since people have different information about the company and experience of contacts with it, its perception among different individuals can differ significantly. In this case, a thorough reflection of its financial and social features, a description of business actions and the consequences of its functioning are not required. This often makes it possible to hide the principles and methods of doing business that actually exist. The brand is easily subject to changes, but they do not affect the essence of the enterprise itself.

Reputation is a dynamic characteristic of a company’s activities that takes shape in people’s minds over time. This phenomenon is formed on the basis of data on the reaction of a certain business structure to a particular situation. A good image makes it possible to find new partners and clients, and long-term and competent management of the company’s name helps to retain them. This gives a kind of guarantee that it will not fail. The image conveys primarily the attitude towards the enterprise at the emotional level: “like it - don’t like it.” It can be formed even without experience of direct cooperation with the organization. Prestige requires reliable knowledge and assessments: a reliable, profitable, convenient partner. That is, it is associated with an analytical approach, necessarily strengthened by experience joint activities. If we compare these two concepts in terms of the level of influence on counterparties making decisions about future interaction, then it is the good name that plays the key role here.

The main tool for creating and changing the image of an organization, allowing it to be done quickly, is interaction with society. This primarily includes media promotion campaigns. A stable reputation takes much longer to build, but also brings benefits over a longer period. Its formation occurs throughout the entire functioning of the company and concerns relationships with all types of counterparties. As a result, this process should create a positive public opinion about the enterprise, and this becomes a criterion facilitating cooperation with it.

The best option is considered when the image and good name of the company, their essence, principles of formation and regulation do not have contradictions and naturally develop simultaneously. In this case, the creation of a particular image should be considered as a local tactical move, while working on reputation is a complex strategy requiring a large number of moves. For example, a process involving exclusively advertising and PR within a certain period is certainly an image campaign. And when a whole series of moves planned for long term, based on analysis and planning and affecting all aspects of work, then we are talking about managing the organization’s reputation.

Its creation includes several parts.

1) Image- a generalized judgment about the company that potential clients have, a way of self-presentation that emphasizes its positive aspects that influence respect from potential customers. During its formation, the following are important:

• choice of name;
• the presence of famous brands of goods and popular services;
• design of the product consumption area;
• mission formation.

The first point turns out to be very important. A well-chosen name makes it possible to immediately stand out among competitors. Its perception will depend on the meaning brought into the subjective image by others and formed at the sight of the name. Before you settle on a specific option, answer three questions:

1. How will you be perceived among others?
2. What population groups will become your clients?
3. What thoughts will people have when they see this word?

2) Positioning the organization in the market requires taking into account her self-awareness, appropriate behavior and actions taken. Optional but useful aspects of managing a company's reputation may include advertising and speaking at professional conferences. Representing a company at various events attracts buyers from different, even non-related, areas.

• leadership level and financial strength;
• ability to cope with difficulties;
• created conditions for the team;
• culture of communication, etc.

4) Fame in the market combines economic opportunities, the period of its primacy in terms of quality, and the widespread distribution of goods in the domestic market and abroad.

5) The prestige of the organization as a place of work associated with the formation of a warm atmosphere between leading managers and subordinates, ensuring comfortable conditions labor comparable to those in companies in this region, providing social package, respect for successes and achievements.

6) Financial stability and constantly growing profits guarantee regular payments to the partners and staff of the company.

Where does enterprise business reputation management begin?

Obviously, before control, reputation must be created. It cannot be created out of nothing. The organization must have significant achievements and advantages that will be the foundation of its good name. Its formation is directly related to serious time and financial costs. The process must be carried out continuously, be comprehensive, professional, technologically advanced, but it cannot be insured against threats, failures, and risks. Only in this case will it bring good income, since people will be willing to pay for guarantees backed by prestige.

Among the assets of the Coca-Cola company, only 4% are material. The remaining 96% are intangible, that is, they consist of the business reputation of the company, brand, corporate image, management team, etc. This example clearly shows that “what cannot be touched” is capable of producing tangible fruits, calculated in fabulous amounts. Such foreign experience makes us think about how to systematize, create and improve “elusive” phenomena.

Business reputation is present in any situation, whether you like it or not. The main goal of any manager is to prevent its spontaneous formation from happening and to create the closest possible approach to the desired attitude of society.

Formation of an enterprise’s reputation consists of the following steps:

1. Study and identification of target groups of the company.

Any production team has four basic target groups. Therefore, the main goal is to create and strengthen relationships with them that can help your plans, but also not contradict the expectations of the target groups. Let's talk about them:

• Regulatory – those who trust the company to conduct its activities and determine the basic regulations. These are the government, controlling authorities, boards of directors and shareholders. Their tasks also include assessing the organization’s performance and, if necessary, limiting its powers. It is obvious that poor quality management of an enterprise’s reputation, in the opinion of regulatory groups, can harm the full development of the business, while their approval of the actions of the management team, apparently, simplifies life and makes it possible to work normally;
• Functional– interacting with the company on a daily level, as they perform actions that are part of its functioning. This category includes employees, suppliers, distributors, service organizations, etc. in this case the work of controlling corporate image is incredibly important, since these groups are the hands and brains of the company. This means that when such people do not share corporate values, do not distribute them to the masses, it will be extremely difficult for the enterprise. After all, the general spirit of the team is capable of creating and managing the positive reputation of a given production society;
• Diffuse – special, their activities are aimed at protecting human rights. This usually includes representatives of the media, local communities, and interest groups, for example, environmentalists. If an organization can boast of a good reputation, then it is of little interest to this category. However, despite this, it is important to build effective interaction. This will provide a reputational buffer in critical situations and create a friendly channel for transmitting information from the company to the outside. That is, by turning them into allies, you form a “safety cushion.” True, it only applies to those emergency incidents when your fault is no more than the volume of such a “pillow”;
• Consumer – categories of clients divided according to needs;

2. Using surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups, identifying the opinions of representatives of target audiences about the organization.

An impeccable information image of a company is created in several stages. First, it is important to clearly articulate how you prefer to be seen by your target groups. Next, objectively evaluate the light in which you appear now. Correct management of an enterprise's reputation consists of reducing the difference between these two indicators. That is, in order to monitor your reputation, it is important to competently work with its components and coordinate fateful organizational decisions with them;

3. Selection of marketing tools with the help of which the task will be accomplished.

The process of creating and successfully managing a corporate good name can be briefly summarized as follows: reputation = actions + communications. As Henry Ford said: “Reputation cannot be built on intentions to do something.” Only continuous work, its results, and successes form the image of the company for its target groups.

PR specialists who work to create a positive image believe that it rests on three pillars, namely:

1. Perfect product quality, high level of customer service, proper staff behavior;
2. Correctly highlighted mission, based on a socially significant idea;
3. Evaluation of activities by the media, the attitude of state and public departments towards it.

From here - the main task corporate PR: existing positive information in full force should work for the company and contribute to its promotion to target audiences. Activities are aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the brand, corporate values ​​and management culture, the degree of moral motivation of employees, cash flow volumes, overall market size, competitors' potential, etc.

How does business reputation management work?

This process, which cannot be avoided in business, includes planning, having a strategy, A complex approach. But just 15 years ago, managers of domestic companies were inclined to rely on the spontaneous nature of reputation formation. In this regard, organizations did not have a chance to enter a large market for services and goods. Also, a low reputation coefficient could lead to low profitability, hence to losses.

Ability to manage business image enterprise includes a whole range of measures. But there are only two main areas of activity for PR specialists to improve the company’s image. This is the job:

• with clients (consumers and business partners);
• with internal audience (employees).

The latter involves determining an already established opinion in relation to the organization. The most significant indicators for subordinates are usually the comfort of working conditions, corporate etiquette and team coherence, the person of the manager, and the stability of incoming payments.

Then it is supposed to work with the shortcomings in these points: if there is dissatisfaction with the manager, then he needs to either be replaced or the necessary positive characteristics must be developed with him; if the fragmentation of specialists is noticeable, then PR employees need to create a reference group, conduct events on corporate etiquette and team building. In other words, all processes take place in accordance with the analysis of the existing image of the company.

The business reputation management process will not be effective without influencing the opinions of consumer groups. This is possible with the help of a properly composed self-presentation. Organizational leaders must envision themselves as a team capable of offering value for money services and products. This positioning creates an ideal image, which is based on working with the perception of an external target audit, and not on a real change in the provision of services and production of goods.

In this type of management of a company’s positive popularity, sources that should convey data about the specifics of a legal entity to your audience are considered important. Usually their role is played by the Internet, mass media, TV, radio, and print media. Image management with their help is associated with an active reference to the activities of the enterprise. At the same time, a feeling of transparency of corporate policy is formed, and this directly affects the increase in the level of trust from the public.

Why is it so important to regulate a company's reputation on the Internet?

Creating a strong positive reputation for an Internet resource is a vivid example of creating online prestige. Websites are almost unaffected by offline factors that accompany small and medium-sized businesses that work with clients live.

Control of an organization's image on an Internet site lies in competition for search queries and the formation of a positive information field. The viability of the project depends on this important task. To solve it on professional level Nowadays, the possibilities of ORM or SERM reputation management in search are used.

Unlike companies and corporations, website owners face virtually no reputational risks from employees and fired workers. A sore subject for most entrepreneurs is protecting their own prestige, which rarely attracts the attention of businessmen in the Internet sphere.

The emphasis in the process of forming and regulating the positive online popularity of the owners of websites and online stores is on the quality of service, reliability and integrity. At the same time, a wide SERM campaign is underway to raise the site to the TOP of search engines for key queries that correspond to the main topic of the resource.

Comprehensive promotion of online stores is built from the following points:

• reputation in in social networks and SMM marketing. To work productively in this direction, it is not enough to create profiles and thus ensure your presence. It is necessary to engage in constant promotion in popular social networks through advertising, reposts and regularly appearing news;
• review sites. PR of an Internet page is inseparable from responses, especially when it comes to retail, promotion of goods and services. Today there are practically no users left who have not read reviews in advance about the resource they are going to work with;
• thematic blogs and microblogs. They provide an opportunity to declare yourself as a market expert and help you rise to the TOP of search engines;
• information presence on news resources. Current information and press releases about the work and development of the portal speak about its market and social life;
• text promotion and SEO, purchasing links. Working on optimizing the internal text content of the site and purchasing sources helps bring the necessary pages to the TOP in terms of traffic growth.

It is important to use various opportunities to form and coordinate a positive reputation for an enterprise website, since this is due to the peculiarities of the work of search engines and their desire to provide the user with a list of relevant primary sources.

Reviews required special attention owner of the Internet page. Today it is possible to conduct productive PR for an online store using popular online platforms. You just need to leave reviews on otzovik.com, yell.ru, irecommend.ru. These are the three most popular resources of this type on the Russian Internet. Before the blocking, orabot.net was also widely used, but unlike the latter, these portals include not only opinions about employers, but also all areas of work.

For example, to regulate the positive image of a company, it is possible to hold prize competitions on the Otzovik website. A company, website, online store can organize a competition for best review, the winner will receive a cash prize.

As a thank you, visitors can leave their comments about the operation of the site and the results of cooperation. Very often, it doesn’t take a lot of money or time to get a steady stream of positive and neutral statements.

How should an enterprise's reputation be managed in a sensitive situation?

The company's reputation can be affected by the actions of your managers and competitors. This includes:

• improper reduction of personnel. Employee layoffs are the norm in many organizations. At the same time, sometimes circumstances are so tense that offended people ready to organize pickets, write to the president of the country;
• negative rumors. Most often they come from the team itself. This happens when bosses communicate with employees incorrectly. Another type of gossip is provoked by competitors as a tool of struggle. Information about financial insolvency quickly spreads in the market;
• litigation. The image of enterprises can be seriously damaged after litigation, for example, of banks with debtors.

It usually happens that managers remember about managing the company's reputation only when a problem has arisen. But even in this case, it is possible to fix everything. There are several important tactical tips:

1. Determine your position and then feel free to defend it publicly.

Often, representatives of Russian business and the leadership apparatus come to meetings with the press or partners without preparing for their speech. They believe that to competently maintain the good name of their company, excellent knowledge about the state of business and the market is enough for them. But correspondents may not agree with your opinion. Therefore, before such a meeting, formulate your point of view on sensitive topics: the reason why the image of the enterprise was damaged, the development of events, measures to eliminate the problem. Only in this case, journalists will not be able to take you by surprise. Take part in major conferences, forums, exhibitions, that is, in all events where you have the opportunity to communicate with people, present your company, demonstrate responsibility, and outline your strategy and objectives;

1. Don't be shy to defend your reputation.

It happens that a company has been set up by competitors, partners, or is in a state of crisis: there have been layoffs of employees, the entire structure is on the verge of bankruptcy. If you know for sure that this is not your fault, that you will soon be able to get out of a difficult situation thanks to your strategy, convince others of this;

1. Learn to publicly apologize.

General Motors and other car manufacturers, when they discover flaws in finished cars, usually apologize to customers and recall them back. Such a step requires considerable expenses. There are known situations in which drug manufacturers have seized medications. These actions are called social responsibility to the consumer and are part of competent management of the company's reputation. When you are truly at fault for what happened, it is important to ask your clients for forgiveness. An open confession of guilt has always been favorably received in our country, but so far few have dared to do so;

1. Never hide your mistakes from the public.

Openness and transparency of actions is almost the main criterion of trust. Choose a topic on which you can share information with the public from time to time. At the same time, do not forget about trade secrets. Thus, messages about how the company exists in a state of crisis and what it will do to get out of it are welcome. It is important to remain as honest as possible with customers and with your employees if you have to reduce staff. In the current deplorable conditions, this move will create a basis for strengthening the image in the future;

1. Act immediately when rumors about your organization begin to spread.

If the situation turns out unfavorably for you, then take matters into your own hands. First of all, create an action plan to reduce costs and maintain earned positions. Try to refuse ill-conceived investments and dubious, albeit tempting, ideas. In critical conditions, replacing the top management team with people with good recommendations and experience in the position of anti-crisis managers will help. Restrain your ambitions: maybe it’s worth choosing one or two of the most profitable areas of operation. Do not be afraid that this will damage your image as a “well-rounded player”, since in difficult circumstances it is better to save a little than to lose everything. Then it will be easier for you to achieve lost positions and conquer the market than to revive your reputation. Make your offers more financially profitable and convenient for customers and partners compared to competitors' products. However, avoid dumping because it is often perceived as a clear sign of impending demise for the firm;

1. Learn to neutralize negative gossip about the company.

The easiest way to fight dirty rumors is with the help of the rumor itself. Having heard one rumor, try to throw a second one into the masses, but it is much more unrealistic and implausible. Due to him, the first one will disappear by itself. For example, a conversation arose that the owner, due to financial troubles, was selling the business and moving abroad. Now you can start the story that, it turns out, he, having refused to change countries, decided to go into space. Then introduce the following outlandish fable: our hero does not fly out of the atmosphere, but plunges hundreds of kilometers into the ground. There are many real examples of the effectiveness of this method. Usually serious people think: “This is nonsense. Most likely, the company is having fun itself.”

Business reputation. What it is? With all the diversity of interests of founders and owners regarding the development of an organization, the priority, of course, is to ensure its sustainability. IN modern world success is largely determined by the degree of adaptation of the company to the accelerating and increasingly complex dynamics of changes occurring in the internal and external environment. Individual advantages and leadership increasingly depend on the effective use of factors that are unique in nature, intangible, intangible, including intellectual property.

Currently, it is obvious that intangible assets can play a huge role in the process of making a profit for an enterprise.

Today, in order to receive the highest market valuation, you do not have to be a manufacturer in the traditional sense of the word. It is enough to own knowledge, trademarks, partnerships with consumers and organizations - all that is commonly called intangible assets.

In accordance with PBU 14/2000, assets that have properties such as:

• Lack of material-material (physical) structure.
• Possibility of identification (separation, separation) from other property.
• Use in the production of products, when performing work, providing services, or for the management needs of the organization.
• Use for a long time, i.e. deadline beneficial use over 12 months or a normal operating cycle that exceeds 12 months.
• Their subsequent resale is not intended.
• The ability to bring economic benefit (income) to the organization in the future.
• Availability of properly executed documents confirming the existence of the asset itself and the organization’s exclusive right to the results of intellectual activity.

From the point of view of accounting possibilities as part of the organization’s property complex, intangible assets are divided into three categories:

1. Intellectual property objects.
2. Organizational expenses.
3. Business reputation.

The Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Article 150) defines business reputation as a non-property right that belongs to a legal entity from the moment of its formation and forms an integral part of its legal capacity.

From the position accounting goodwill is the difference between its purchase price (as an acquired property complex as a whole) and the book value of its assets. Goodwill arising on an acquisition is defined as the payment made by the acquirer in anticipation of future economic benefits from assets not recorded in the financial statements, but for which the buyer is willing to pay. This value is placed on the balance sheet of the enterprise as an intangible asset at the time of purchase of the enterprise. Thus, the reason for the “overpayment” at the time of purchasing an enterprise is the presence of hidden assets in the organization. Such assets may include: highly qualified management, accumulated business experience, an established sales system, a good credit history and reputation in the market, an advantageous economic and geographical location, and other assets that cannot be alienated from the organization and transferred to other persons.

Business reputation has a number of features that distinguish it from other intangible assets:

1. The impossibility of existing separately from the enterprise and being an independent object of a transaction due to the fact that business reputation does not belong to the organization by right of ownership.
2. The undeniable absence of a material form.
3. The value of goodwill is conditional, because it does not include the actual costs of acquisition, creation, and legal protection.
4. The ability to write off and pay off the value of business reputation in accounting without the risk of depriving the company of this reputation.

In accordance with international standards, goodwill must be amortized systematically over its useful life. However, these timings are quite difficult to determine. MGIMO Professor S.I. Puchkova explains that in this case it is necessary to take into account such factors as the foreseeable life of the company, stability and the planned life of the industry, typical life cycle and information about business reputation in similar companies, the impact of economic factors on the company, terms of service of key specialists, expected actions of competitors, legislative and other acts, etc.

According to international financial reporting standards, the useful life of business reputation cannot exceed 20 years from the date of initial recognition.

From the above, we can conclude that, unlike intellectual property, goodwill cannot be transferred, sold or donated, since business reputation is inherent in the entire company and is inseparable from it. It cannot be an independent object of a transaction, since it is not the property of the company, and is inalienable from it in the same way as a reputation is inalienable from a person.

This is the main difference between business reputation and other intangible assets. Even if the enterprise is sold, the company's reputation may be damaged, since the former management, when leaving, takes with them their skills, business connections, experience, etc.

Goodwill is only present when there is excess profit, although from an accounting perspective, negative goodwill is also possible. Positive goodwill means that the value of a business exceeds its book value.

Business reputation management is becoming a valuable strategic tool competition, since it gives the effect of the organization acquiring a certain market power.

There is still no single interpretation of the concept of business reputation, or its English equivalent, goodwill. But despite this, domestic companies They are trying their best to evaluate it.

Most often, goodwill is considered as a tool for reporting the difference between the sale price and the book value of assets, if this difference cannot be recognized as an independent amount of one or more inventory units of intangible assets. On the other hand, the author of one of the popular textbooks on financial management V.V. Kovalev believes that the economic meaning of goodwill lies in the valuation of what the company has accumulated at the time of analyzing its intangible value ( trademark, patents the company has, developed by it and not shown on the balance sheet, established team, etc.). That is, in his opinion, goodwill is “the difference between the market valuation of liabilities and the market valuation of assets.”

The most precise definition of this concept is given by I.A. Blank: “Goodwill is one of the types of intangible assets, the value of which is determined as the difference between the market (sale) value of the enterprise as an integral property complex and its book value (the amount net assets)". He believes that such an increase in enterprise value is associated with the possibility of obtaining more high level profit (in comparison with the average market level of investment efficiency) due to the use of more effective system management, dominant positions in the product market, application of new technologies, etc.

Russian legislation quite fully reflects modern look on the concept of “business reputation”. It recognizes the business reputation of legal entities, provides the opportunity for its judicial protection, and also allows one to consider business reputation and business connections as a contribution to a simple partnership.

In this case, it needs to be assessed. This is especially true for a profitable, successfully operating company that has strong established business connections, a favorable location and highly qualified administrative staff.

Methods for assessing business reputation

Most often, when assessing business reputation for internal use (if accounting purposes are not taken into account), methods are used that identify descriptive characteristics of the company’s reputation and image, that is, qualitative parameters that are not translated into quantitative and financial ones. Thus, as a result of the study, an analytical report appears, which allows you to obtain fairly detailed information for managing the company and planning its activities. Such methods include sociological surveys and expert assessment, which is divided into two subtypes: rating and recommendation.

When using the method opinion polls Find out the opinion of the company from people who are directly related to its work. They may be representatives of the executive and legislative branches, market analysts, investors and shareholders, whose attitude determines the reaction of the stock market, the media, as well as consumers of products. It is believed that this assessment is the most accurate, and other methods can only clarify the situation.

The rating method includes the compilation of business reputation ratings by independent organizations. Main feature this method is that a company that wants to evaluate its reputation does nothing itself. The ratings are compiled by respected independent organizations, for example, Fortune magazine, newspaper Financial Times. In addition to business reputation ratings, there are corporate governance ratings (CGR) that are close to them. In Russia, they are compiled by Standard & Poor’s and the Institute of Corporate Law and Governance. When calculating the rating, we use various factors, directly affecting the level of business reputation of the company, for example, the relationship between shareholders, management, board of directors and other financial stakeholders.

Anti-crisis business reputation management policy

Let us repeat: business reputation created within a company is not recognized as an asset, since, we repeat, it cannot be valued in monetary terms, it is not property and cannot be alienated. That is why business reputation is the most vulnerable asset of an organization. All it takes is one burst of negative, compromising information, and the value of a business can change instantly. And a reputation crisis leads to a sales crisis.

The word "crisis" Chinese consists of two hieroglyphs “danger” and “opportunity”. However, in relation to the reputation and image of a company, a crisis is certainly a negative phenomenon, because You can't make a good impression twice.

To successfully counteract a crisis, it is necessary to detect and diagnose it in advance. In its most global form, the sequence of crisis management activities is as follows.

Rice. 1. Sequence of crisis management measures

Crisis management is carried out both in advance and during crises - that is, always. It must ensure anti-crisis development, that is, a controlled process of preventing a crisis and neutralizing its consequences, as well as using crisis factors for the development of the socio-economic system.

Objects of anti-crisis management are presented in Figure 2.

Rice. 2. Anti-crisis management objects

The subjects of crisis management can be:

• owners, founders of enterprises/organizations;
• shareholders, participants of enterprises/organizations;
• managers;
• government bodies management;
• creditors;
• labor collectives;
• arbitration managers.

Here it becomes obvious how important the reputational component is in the process of bringing an enterprise out of crisis. It's about about managing the internal (formed in the minds of employees) and external (in the perception of others) reputation of the company.

After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the company, as well as its real capabilities, a choice is made of an anti-crisis policy, which should serve as the basis for developing a recovery program.

During a crisis, three important factors influence reputation:

• the nature of the company's reputation among various groups before the crisis;
• size and phase of the crisis;
• the scale and tone of media coverage of the crisis.

Example. American automakers have been accused by competitors of having some critical parts of American cars made in Thailand or Hong Kong. The argument was used by specialists in such a way as if all this happened in accordance with the production program, with increased requirements to quality control in order to reduce the cost of the car. Thus, a company's behavior during a crisis can both aggravate and defuse the situation.

Another example. The oil tanker Exxon Valdez sank in Alaska in 1989. The company has not made any independent statements about the release crude oil, and its leader visited the crash site only a week later. The media strategy fully reflected the company's internal culture. Result: two weeks after the crisis, the company lost $3 billion on the stock market, or 5% of its market value. The damage assessment turned out to be correct: cleaning up the oil spill cost $1.4 billion, $900 million was paid in civil and criminal claims, the remaining amount was a boycott of consumers who cut their credit cards and sent them to the company.

Anti-crisis communication strategies

Peekaboo

• The aristocrat's answer: don't explain anything and don't apologize.
• Keep your head down: say as little as possible and wait for interest to switch to something else. No comments: create an investigation commission, turning public attention to it.
• Call a lawyer: used in case of information leakage and in contacts with hostile outsiders - the distributor of negative information is held accountable.

Offensive Strategies

• Blame, threat, cover-up, denial.
• Find another culprit.
• Parry the blow and disarm the enemy.

Fatalistic Strategies

• Dangerous business.
• Coincidence.
• Don't lose heart.

Tit for Tat Strategies

• Public sacrifice.
• Leaving the market.
• Give us one more chance.

The anti-crisis strategy is developed on the basis of a reputation audit, which is developed today for a banking credit organization and consists of the following:

1. Analysis of the degree of bank representation in the media.
2. Assessing the bank's image in the media.
3. Assessing the level of awareness of different target audiences (government, corporate and retail business).
4. Identification of the specifics and features of perception of the bank’s image by different target audiences.
5. Assessing the place, role and significance of the bank in the economic and political life of the country (region).
6. Assessing the bank’s relationships with government and business representatives.
7. Evaluate customer feedback.
8. The image of bank top managers in the media.
9. Analysis of risk factors for the image and reputation of the bank.

• crises associated with the actions of government agencies: searches in offices, seizure of documents, charges of laundering, money laundering, illegal banking activities;
• high-profile cases with the detention of key figures: managers, clients or founders, shareholders;
• negative publications in the media and the Internet. The latter poses a particular danger, since information can be posted on the forum and its author cannot be identified;
• numerous negative reviews clients;
• global crises affecting the mood and behavior of clients: the international mortgage crisis of 2007, the decline in the stock market;
• disclosure of trade secrets, especially in the area of ​​client relations, leakage of production secrets;
• dismissal of key figures;
• settling personal accounts, especially of former employees;
• physical elimination of competitors;
• natural disasters, technical crises.

Anti-crisis reputation management is aimed at government agencies (regulators), journalists as carriers of information, clients and partners.

Based on the above, we can formulate the basic principles of reputation management in a crisis:

1. Speed ​​and proactive work: the first day of a crisis is a crucial time; if there is no response, the information field will be filled with rumors, often created by competitors.
2. Information openness: it is necessary not to limit yourself to press releases, but to try to answer questions from any audience in sufficient volume.
3. Honesty: Efforts to hide facts have brought down many well-known companies, such as Arthur Andersen. When Deuche Bank suffered from the actions of the international swindler Schneider, it was the first to announce its comments and give its action plan. He not only admitted his mistake, but financed the completion of Schneider's projects, thereby demonstrating his sincerity. Transparency directly impacts the value of an organization.
4. Initiative. The main source of news should be the company itself, since even when announcing negative information, you can give your own interpretation.
5. Coordination. Information that goes outside the company must be the same. Any discrepancies or disagreements aggravate the crisis.6. Work with all levels at once: you need to inform not only the media, but consumers, employees and partners, government agencies, shareholders. Each group must have its own arguments.

So, being one of the most important assets of an organization, business reputation needs to be managed not from time to time, but programmatically, systematically. The degree of reputation vulnerability depends on:

1. From its capitalization, compliance of a respectable appearance with the real state of affairs.
2. From the ability to meet society's expectations, reducing the gap between what is desired and what is actual.
3. From coordinating the work and decisions of various departments. Effective management of reputational risks presupposes the presence of a person responsible for reputation, reporting directly to the first person, research of public sentiment and their changes.

Rice. 3. Scheme for choosing an anti-crisis policy

Lydia Mokrova, Kirill Dodokin

positioning business reputation agro-industrial

Business reputation management is becoming a most valuable strategic tool for competition, since it gives the effect of acquiring a certain market power by the organization.

Uniformity of reputation allows you to optimize costs and efforts, but despite this, for efficient work The company should not devote all its efforts to simultaneously working with all target groups. It is enough to highlight one and focus attention on it, creating the desired reputation in her eyes.

Most often, organizations build a reputation “from scratch”, and, accordingly, even at the stage of developing a communication and anti-crisis strategy, it is necessary to identify which key link will dominate in building a successful (ideal) business reputation.

In reputation management, a PR specialist focuses on facts, events, accurate, reliable information that confirms for the target audience the characteristics that this target audience gave to the subject of business reputation.

The goal of reputation management is to create a manageable reputation. Managing reputation means skillfully managing all its components and taking them into account when making managerial decisions.

Depending on where the company image appears, it is called differently. You can build a reputation using a specific mechanism of critical descriptors. It lies in the fact that a person, perceiving information about a company, identifies some critical variables, characteristics that, from his point of view, explain what is actually happening there. Thus, one phrase from a plant employee that wages have been increased and no one will be laid off outweighs tens of thousands of dollars invested in building communications in order to gain trust.

Critical descriptors work for reputation if certain conditions are met. First, there must be a cause-and-effect relationship, some variable that is being talked about. Secondly, they must bear the imprint of unintentionality - like little things that are not paid attention to and which cannot be done on purpose. This is what distinguishes them from promotions that work for a brand. In this case, consumers must want to find the descriptor. Plus there must be an information background that the descriptors encourage you to believe.

There are many reputation management tools, but the most basic are:

Development of the company's vision and mission, strict adherence to them

Creating openness through media channels

Communicating achievements

Work on quality

Increasing employee competence

Getting feedback

Coordination of company plans with target groups, especially in the social sphere

Formation of corporate culture, creation of corporate standards

Creation of effective PR -- GR -- IR communications

Managing a company's reputation is a complex work that includes the creation of disciplinary factors in the form of corporate rules of behavior, their implementation and adherence to them. This should be the internal philosophy of the company, covering all personnel from the security guard to the general director. Bringing an external polish and creating an impression of yourself is important, but only in conjunction with work within the company on internal “content”. The discrepancy between the shell and content leads to a crisis in the perception of the company and an inevitable decline in its reputation.

Competitiveness and investment attractiveness receive the status of key indicators of a company's success in the market when the business reaches a stage of development at which the problem of survival has already been solved, and the most pressing issues are sustainable development and growth. In such conditions, product quality is no longer a competitive advantage - it becomes a necessary condition survival. Competition between companies moves from the level of products (price, characteristics, etc.) to the level of reputation (trust, benefits, expectations, approaches to work, etc.).

Thanks to the Internet and the media, information about any company is easy to find, and the choice of products and investments is growing every year due to the globalization of markets. The loyalty of interested groups to the company is increasingly difficult to maintain, because if there is wide choice, they need more than a standard collaboration offer. It is important for any person, as an individual or representative of an organization, to be sure that choosing a company for any form of further cooperation will not only bring tangible benefits, but will also have a beneficial effect on interaction with people and organizations that are important to him - partners, friends, family, authorities, superiors, subordinates, media and so on.

To build the desired reputation, it is necessary to determine two things: what the company's reputation is made of (what it consists of) and what it is mostly based on (who or what “wears” it).

Interested groups form a public opinion about the company from the following main factors: emotional appeal, product quality, relationships with partners, management reputation, social responsibility, financial performance. Business articles Tarabas.ru: article: “Reputation”

1. Emotional appeal. This factor is important for companies offering consumer goods or professional services. In the first case, the decision to purchase is often made at the sight of the product, and then snippets of information and feelings that are somehow related to this product begin to emerge in memory. Moreover, their truthfulness and validity are absolutely not important - the main thing is that a person trusts these feelings and information.

The buyer of the service will feel its results, as a rule, not immediately, but after some time, and he must pay for the service now. In such a situation, the buyer is always looking for at least some sign of “integrity” or “dishonesty” of a given company in order to make the right choice. And such a sign can be any “little thing”, and not necessarily directly related to the company’s services: tone of voice, impression of the office, information seen on the Internet the day before or heard from a “trusted person”, a conversation between employees who are confident that no one hears, the general feeling from contact with the company.

2. Product quality. No explanation required. Today, without this, there is nothing to do on the market, and a company that produces low-quality products is simply doomed.

3. Relations with partners. This includes both external partners and suppliers, as well as company employees. The latter, leaving work, become part of outside world, in which they and the people around them talk and write about the company. The role of relationships with external partners cannot be overestimated, given that suppliers and project partners are usually familiar with the side of the company that is not covered in advertising and rarely in communication with clients and the media. Companies that do not pay enough attention to working with external partners, in fact, plant a “time bomb” in their own reputation, since in the event of a deterioration or break in relations, offended partners will have “something to tell” about the company.

If a company does not work with end consumers, its employees and partners play an even more important role in shaping its reputation. In emerging markets, the ability to fulfill obligations in conditions of instability and exit non-standard situations with profit or at least least losses. After all, purchasing decisions in the B2B sphere are not made by one person and involve significant costs and long-term cooperation. The work of the company purchasing products or services depends on the quality of such cooperation, and the degree of risk in this case should be minimal. If the real attitude of employees and partners towards the company’s products does not correspond to the declared one, this will certainly be passed on to end consumers, and the effect of efforts to promote the company will be minimal.

4. Management reputation. Considering the stage of economic development in which most countries of the post-Soviet space are located, when the transition from capital accumulation to professional management is still ongoing, the director or owner of the company (and often this is the same person), regardless of his actual level of authority, is perceived by the public as the “face and conscience” of this company. That is, all the decisions and actions of this person, which become known, invariably affect the attitude towards the company’s products and towards the company in general.

5. Social responsibility. Although social responsibility of business is just beginning to enter the sphere of priorities of companies in our latitudes, public expectations of social contribution from business are quite high.

Today, unsystematic charity (providing money without clarifying the details of its use and demanding a report on the results of the project) is beginning to give way to social responsibility programs. At the same time, most companies work precisely according to the first principle - responding to requests for help, without particularly delving into the essence of the project that is proposed to be supported, and without insisting on reporting on the use of funds. At the same time, research shows that one of the negative consequences participation of business in public initiatives, a large number of company executives mentioned the possibility of misuse of assistance by recipients. Thus, to ensure the effectiveness of social initiatives and strengthen the reputation of a socially responsible business, it is important to approach social spending as an investment: find those who need it, study the needs, develop a plan for collaboration, reporting and communicating the results.

6. Financial indicators. A business that doesn't make money is not a business by definition. And the fact that the company is doing well undoubtedly affects its reputation. Especially if financial indicators are key characteristic or - the basis of the company’s reputation, such as that of banks, investment funds and other financial institutions. In addition, today, in our latitudes, the size and stability wages are still one of the key components of a company's reputation, both in the eyes of employees and in the eyes of the outside world. Since the ability to maintain stable market level compensation itself speaks about the financial condition of the company and its ability to conduct business. At the same time, the presence of impressive financial results of companies in emerging markets is often far from the result effective approach to conduct business, but by the presence of the necessary connections and preferences obtained on their basis.

It is obvious that a company's reputation is a multifaceted and complex concept. All its components are interconnected and only together can provide an adequate impression of the company. Each employee individually and all departments of the company together participate in the formation of the company’s reputation. Depending on the field of activity, specific gravity different components of reputation will be different, and a lack of balance between all six components or shortcomings in one, ultimately, reduces the return on work on the company’s reputation. Once the components of a company's reputation have been identified, in order to develop an effective strategy, it is worth determining who or what is the basis of the company's reputation today.

Experts identify five strategies for managing a company's reputation, depending on its basis. Thus, a reputation that has developed with minimal participation of the company (or without it) always has one or several objects, to which the evaluative opinion of interested groups is mainly directed. Such objects can be:

Company management;

Company employees;

Company products or services;

Company achievements;

Financial indicators of the company.

Thus, strategies whose object is a person (manager or employees) have undeniable advantage before strategies whose object is “inanimate” (achievements, finances or products). It is for this reason that the latter strategy is rarely used in its pure form, without combining with others. After all, if a company falls into crisis situation, and she, in addition to defending her position, will have to “introduce” into the trust of the public a speaker whom no one has heard of before, which means that the level of trust in him will be equal to the level of trust in the company in the current situation. Even when a product-centric strategy is used, significant attention is paid to communicating with consumers to convey the company's core values ​​and prevent potential crises.

Despite the fact that investing in a company’s reputation is, as a rule, a long-term investment, the return on which can be fully measured only after several years, it is important for company managers today to realize that if their company does not have a strategy for managing its own reputation, competitors certainly will , has its own vision of its reputation. Only the company itself may not like the competitor’s option.