Thoughts About the Relevance of Reputation

Abstract

We are entering a new economic cycle, which may be named «the reputation economy» —a trend that was triggered by the crisis that started in 2008-2009, when the loss of trust affected both businesses and governments. The recovery of trust is essential for overcoming the economic crisis. The author argues that good reputation management may serve as a tool for restoring trust and today the business sector is in a better position for promoting management of strategic intangible assets. In order to restore trust, it is fundamental to understand and be able to manage social networks as well as relations with the stakeholders due to the fact that peers and experts are the only sources of information on companies and institutions that still enjoy trust of the individuals. The author presents the think tank Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership as a project initiated in this context with an objective to help companies and the public sector to improve management of key intangible assets (the reputation, the brand and the communication). The author argues the utility of this initiative in order to restore trust and successfully compete in this new context of the reputation economy.