Current economic environment forces companies to move towards coherent and rigorous management of the corporate reputation. A new role titled the Chief Reputation Officer has emerged, with the responsibility to develop strong and durable relations with the stakeholders. During the last decade, we have been observing a change in the paradigm of power in the corporate world. We have entered an era that can be labelled “the economy of reputation”. This new paradigm is characterised by the understanding that power belongs to stakeholders and that the importance of their recommendations is increasing. Document prepared for Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership quoting, among other sources, the interventions of Anthony Johndrow, Managing Director RI US, Partner and Kasper Nielsen, Managing Partner of RI Responsible for North America in the fifteenth International Conference on corporate reputation, brand, identity and competitiveness held in New Orleans, May 2011.

1. In the past, companies used to operate on an
economy where the quality products and services
were the most important thing for consumers.
However, this has changed. Recently published
by RepTrakTM Global Pulse2011, results suggest
that 60% of purchasing decisions are based on
the perception of the company over the product
characteristics. Consumers want to know what
there is behind the products and the services that
they consume. Not consumers and consumers.
All stakeholders have become aware that the
behavior of enterprises has implications that go
beyond their mere daily activity.
This attitude towards companies translates into
a growing demand for transparency on corporate
activities. Corporate messages relevance focused
on brands is diminishing. Consumers are becoming
more power of decision and influence on brands
that should get used to operate in an unstable
environment. It is the new economy of the
reputation that is characterized by:
• Confidence does not buy, confidence has to win.
• What is not measured cannot be managed.
Models to measure intangible assets are needed.
• Reputation management is a process from the
inside out and it is part of the corporate identity.
• Reputation should be considered in
every business decision processes.
• It is important a depth knowledge
of the company stakeholders.
In this new economy, reputation is the company
most valuable asset. Reputation management, art
and science to win, invest and develop relationships
with its stakeholders are key and the direct benefits
could be summarized in six points:
1. Favorable “Benefit of the doubt” and increased
confidence during a crisis situation.
2. Recovery of the price of the shares after a crisis.
3. Clients recommendations increased.
4. Attracting the best talent.
5. Better products and services access
than competitors.
6. An enhanced media coverage.
For Anthony Johndrow, director of Reputation
Institute in United States, the characteristic of this
new economy, is that consumers look beyond what
In today’s environment requires company’s consistent and rigorous management
of its corporate reputation. The new figure of Chief Communications Officer
emerges as responsible for cementing the strong and lasting relationships with
the stakeholders.
Strategy Documents
I01/2012
Chief Communications
Officer in the new
‘reputation economy’
Communication
Insights
Document prepared for Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership quoting, among other sources, the interventions of
Anthony Johndrow, Managing Director RI US, Partner and Kasper Nielsen, Managing Partner of RI Responsible for North America in
the fifteenth International Conference on corporate reputation, brand, identity and competitiveness held in New Orleans, May 2011.

2. Insights 2
Chief Communications
Officer in the new
‘reputation economy’
the company claims to be, to focus on what others
say about it. In a multistakeholder environment, a
license to operate is not only a simple administrative
authorization by the controller or a vote by proxy of
a shareholder; but it implies a solid background of
credible actions and good relationships resulting in
confidence.
Building trust
In the reputation economy, the main challenge for
companies is to have to face, it is to foster and to
win the confidence of the stakeholders. To achieve
this should strengthen the reputation management
as a strategic factor that goes beyond the traditional
parameters of marketing, public relations and
communications and all of these elements affect all
processes within the company.
In contrast to the management of a brand,
confidence may not be appropriate or buy, since
perceptions belong to stakeholders and these are
formed by multiple factors, not always controllable
by the company.
Not only that, nowadays the information
technologies available allows that stakeholders may
share their experiences, to verbalize their opinion,
to influence and impact on a wider audience at
breakneck speed.
In days gone by, reputation took shape through
the media opinion, as well as “by word of mouth”
and brand names. Now reputation is built, at least
in large part, in social networks (Twitter, Online
shopping communities, news, forums, Facebook,
blogs, among other sites) where clients and other
stakeholders discuss the company behavior.
The implementation of a coherent strategy for
relations with the stakeholders must develop always
starting from internal to external stakeholders,
generating growing trust circles. Reputation is a
process of confidence generation from the inside
out, based on employees as the first “line of Defense”
in the value construction. Who know better, who
are closer of knowing the reality of the good that
is done within an organization? They are the own
employees. Therefore, the first confidence circle
must build a company is with people who are closer
to this company that they are the own employees.
Thus, the employee satisfaction radiates customers,
non-customers, and the wider society as a whole
through the extension of growing trust circles.
Chief Communications Officer
In order to build trust and obtaining the direct
benefits of reputation management, the most
advanced companies in the world have already put
into operation within their organizations the Chief
Communications Officer (CCO) role, as highest
authority to manage the reputation with different
stakeholders.
The CCO is a Senior Executive that reports directly
to the Board of Directors and he/she is responsible
to analyze the impact of reputation in the company
business. The CCO is responsible of managing
corporate reputation, branding, public relations,
Public Affairs.
In the reputation economy
the success and value
of a company depends
on the support of its
‘stakeholders’.
CCO is also responsible for integrated, coherent,
effective and efficient management of all internal
and external communications through all points
of contact, virtual and physical, in order to
create a favorable base for strong and lasting
relationships with stakeholders which depends on
the organization.
For Professor Charles Fombrun, Chairman of
Reputation Institute, “as well as the companies
appoint Chief Financial Officer even to protect
the financial capital and a Chief Operating Officer
to oversee operations, the companies must also
designate an Officer to watch over the tangible
intangible assets”.
According to Johndrow, without this figure
a company’s reputation could be boosted of
conjuncture way, either by accident (like what
happened in the recent financial crisis), or by
the conversations that occur in the markets. The
CCO figure can help point out the importance and
make explicit the hidden value of the company’s
reputation and boost competitive advantage that
represent the reputation improving the connection
between the Corporation and its stakeholders.
Priority in purchasing decisions
Source: Reputation Institute; 2011.
Based on
the product
characteristics
Based on the
company
perceptions
40%
60%

3. Insights 3
Chief Communications
Officer in the new
‘reputation economy’
Among others, the Chief Communications Officer
performs the following functions:
1. Development and implementation of a
communication policy integrated into the global
strategy of the organization.
2. To Assist the Organization to have a deeper
understanding of the market and stakeholders
and to provide knowledge and management
tools on how to transform this knowledge into
differentiation, the attractiveness perception
and behaviors of support.
3. To help the organization in building and
maintaining strong relationships with key
stakeholders at all levels of society.
4. To support the organization in the creation
of the strategic global alignment through
the company Vision, Mission and Values, as
the starting point for internal and external
organization alignment.
5. To aid the organization in the creation and
strengthening of a strong corporate brand.
6. To evaluate the organization to create and
improve a sustainable corporate reputation.
7. To support the organization in identifying and
mitigating all reputacional risks.
8. Senior executives training in corporate
reputation management.
9. To advice the CEO in the construction and the
maintenance of her/his reputation as a leader.
10. Development of a balanced scorecard to measure
the impact of the intangibles assets in the profit
and loss statement.
New skills
According to Johndrow, the necessary knowledge
that reputation managers need to thrive in the
current context could be summed up in five skills:
1. Cognitive skills: knowledge of commercial and
communication functions and management
of stakeholders.
2. Analytical skills: causal thinking and carrying
out inferences, as well as thought systems and
context analysis.
3. Process skills: change management, as well as
facilitate the coordination and implementation.
4. Communication skills: writing, speaking,
presenting, in addition to comparative dynamics
between the old and new media.
5. Organizational skills: persuading the others and
the backup mobilization, as well as organize and
lead high performance teams.
The discipline of rigorous
analysis, what matters
for the company to its
customers, opens new
competitive scenarios.
Conclusions
In the course of last decade has been a change in
the paradigm of power in the business world and
we have entered completely in an era which we
call the reputation economy. This new paradigm is
characterized by understand that stakeholders have
the power in hands and their recommendations are
a growing value. Reputation has become the real
territory where competing companies, institutions,
cities and countries. The new figure of the Chief
Communicactions Officer (CCO) emerges as a
response to this new paradigm.
Chief Communications Officer
place and functions
Source: Reputation Institute, 2011.
Brand, public relations, Public Affairs, internal
communication, external communication
Board of
Directors
Chief
Operating
Officer
Chief
Financial
Officer
Chief
Communications
Officer

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