Corporate Reputation

Someone asked me the other day "How does a corporate build its reputation?". It was a seemingly simple question, as any number of books on the subject have a ready answer - build transparency, accountability and good governance - and your reputation shall grow. Let us step back for a moment and think, how many people in an organisation would know what the activity of building transparency, accountability and governance means or involves, and what their role in this activity is? Would the Purchasing Clerk or the Salesman empathise with it? Often times the problem with Business Ethics is that we place it on a very high pedestal and make it sound more complicated than it really is.
In simple terms, corporate reputation is built or otherwise every time there is an interaction between a stakeholder and the organisation. If each of these interactions is based on the principles of respect, fairness and mutual benefit, reputation grows. When a Salesman responds promptly to the complaint of a shop keeper in a small town, he is demonstrating respect. When the Purchase executive ensures that there is a transparent tendering process, he demonstrates fairness. When a Purchase manager shares the annual requirement with a vendor, he is emphasising on the principle of mutual benefit. These are simple principles for anyone in the organisation to relate to.
The key here is that every interaction counts. The net impact is something like a credit card account. When you spend on the card, you get reward points. These add up slowly over time. When you miss a payment, you get a big charge on your card. The penalty for delayed payments is much higher than the reward points for spending. Sometimes it takes a series of non-payments to get your card cancelled, but sometimes one large default may do the damage.