New Book Applies Proven Investment Strategies to Re-Building Corporate Trust

MUNICH, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of the financial crisis, how can companies regain public trust and safeguard their corporate reputations?

That is the subject of a new management book entitled "Reputation Capital: Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century." The editors, Joachim Klewes and Robert Wreschniok of Ketchum Pleon, a leading European public relations consultancy and part of Ketchum, make the case that strategies for building reputation are strikingly similar to the classic investment strategies followed in the financial marketplace, including total-return, value, growth and hedge.

The editors will be discussing these strategies and other aspects of reputation management at the European Centre for Reputation Studies' (ECRS) fourth annual international symposium, Nov. 13, in Munich. They will be joined by Siemens, the Dow Chemical Company, EADS and some of the 29 international authors who contributed articles to the just-released book published by Springer.

"The rules for building reputation mirror classic investment strategies - with a definite relationship between risk and return," says Robert Wreschniok, one of the book's co-editors.

A recent study by Harvard Business Manager (http://wissen.harvardbusinessmanager.de/wissen/leseprobe/62546216/artikel.html) counts reputation among the five most important intangible corporate assets. Simply put, a company's reputation translates directly to the bottom line. The challenge, says Wreschniok, is how to systematically build reputation at a time when people have less faith in corporations.

The "hedge strategy" is one that proved particularly successful when used in Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

"To an extent unusual even in politics, the Obama campaign's reputation capital was almost solely tied up in the candidate," says Joachim Klewes, the book's other co-editor. "An analogy in the corporate world is the company that strongly links its reputation-building efforts to a charismatic CEO, a highly visible marketing campaign or a high-growth area of the business."

The complete opposite of such a risky strategy is the "total-return" approach, which aims to preserve reputation capital and achieve the highest level of security.

"But total-return strategies have had their day and are no longer realistic," says Wreschniok. "In a world of 24/7 media coverage and the intense scrutiny of Web 2.0-enabled critics, there is no place a company can hide."

A more enlightened approach, says Klewes, is the "growth strategy," in which companies analyze the various attributes or sectors of their business that may affect reputation. They then work diligently to diminish reputation risks while, at the same time, mounting highly visible external campaigns to emphasize positive reputation drivers.

The risks involved in a growth strategy are further moderated in a "value strategy," where communications is more inwardly directed - to the company's own employees, as well as business partners and customers.

"Companies make all sorts of investments - from capital equipment to R&D - and have sophisticated tools to help make these decisions," says Joachim Klewes. "These new reputation strategies give companies with different goals and varying structures the tools to assess the risks and rewards of investing in reputation capital. In the new world of non-stop public scrutiny, that will be critical to rebuilding trust in the private sector."

For more information about the Nov. 13 European Centre for Reputation Studies international symposium in Munich, visit www.reputation-centre.org.

"Reputation Capital: Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century" is now available at Borders among other outlets. The editors, Joachim Klewes and Robert Wreschniok, and a number of the authors will be available for interview on 13 November.

About The European Centre for Reputation (ECRS)
The European Centre for Reputation (ECRS) was founded in 2005 by representatives of the Forschungsbereich fur Offentlichkeits- und Gesellschaftsforschung (Center for Research on the Public Sphere and Society) at the University of Zurich, the Institut fur Marktorientierte Unternehmensfuhrung (Institute for Market-Based Management) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich and the European communications consultancy Pleon. The think tank seeks to advance European reputation research and to professionalise corporate reputation management.

About Ketchum Pleon
Ketchum Pleon is the leading communications consultancy in Europe. For more information, visit www.ketchumpleonmerge.com.

About Ketchum
A communications innovator, Ketchum ranks among the largest global communications consultancies and leads the industry in the U.K. and continental Europe as Ketchum Pleon. With five global practices - Brand Marketing, Corporate, Healthcare, Food and Nutrition, and Technology - and specialty capabilities that include Access Communications (high- and consumer-tech PR), Concentric Communications (experiential marketing, events and meetings), MMG (clinical trial recruitment), Ketchum Global Research Network, Ketchum Sports and Entertainment Marketing, and Stromberg Consulting (change management and workplace communications), Ketchum leverages its marketing and corporate communication expertise to build brands and reputations for clients. In 2009, Advertising Age named Ketchum to its annual "Ones to Watch" Agency A-List, noting the agency's long-standing client partnerships, digital and disruptive media expertise, and CSR and sustainability programming. For more information on Ketchum, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC), visit www.ketchum.com.

Editor's Notes:

The Fourth ECRS Symposium: Reputation Capital 2009

Speakers: Dr. Mark Eisenegger, University of Zurich; Stefan Denig, Head of Corporate Communications - Issue Management Siemens AG; Dr. Frank Herkenhoff, Head of Media Relations Deutsche Borse AG;

Prof. Dr. Joachim Klewes, Senior Partner at Ketchum Pleon and honorary professor at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf; Jan Muller, Vice President of Issues and Strategy for Corporate Communications EADS; Dr. Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb, University of Oxford; Jens Rupp, Sustainability Manager Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company; David Rockland, Partner and Managing Director, Ketchum; Robert Wreschniok, Senior Consultant Ketchum Pleon and Board Member ECRS.

"Reputation Capital: Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century"

Joachim Klewes, Robert Wreschniok (Eds.). 2009. Springer.

ISBN 978-3-642-01629-5

Authors: Prof. Rosa Chun, Manchester Business School; Prof. Dr. Hans Caspar von der Crone, University of Zurich; Prof. Gary Davies, Manchester Business School;

Dr. Mark Eisenegger, Board Member ECRS, University of Zurich, Andrea Fischer, former German Federal Health Minister; Tomaso Galli, former Director of Communications PRADA Group; Prof. Dr. Sophie Gaultier-Gaillard, Sorbonne University; Dr. Frank Herkenhoff, Deutsche Börse AG; Alex Hindson Amlin Plc; Prof. Dr. Joachim Klewes, Ketchum Pleon; Joachim Kuss, Ketchum Pleon; Peter Lochbihler, Ketchum Pleon; Prof. Jean-Paul Louisot, Sorbonne University; Dirk Popp, Kechum Pleon; Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb, Oxford University; Jenny Rayner, Abbey Consulting; Sascha Raithel, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU); Dr. Jens Rupp, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company SA; Julia Schankin, Ketchum Pleon; Matthias Schloderer, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU); Prof. Dr. Manfred Schwaiger, Board Member ECRS, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU);

Dr. Reimer Stobbe, MunichRe; Ansgar Thiessen, Fribourg University; Kelvin Thompson, Rosemont Executive Search and MontaRosa; Lic. Phil. Matthias Vonwil, GfK Switzerland; MLaw Johannes Vetsch, University of Zurich; Robert Wreschniok, Board Member ECRS, Ketchum Pleon; Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag, Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD).