Most of the efforts aimed at improving corporate reputation today are focused on the impact that reputation has on business, gauging this impact and obtaining the information necessary for defining reputational strategy and placing intangibles in the centre of the overall business strategy, overcoming divisional barriers. Currently, brand experiences are related to different stakeholders: customers, employees, investors, shareholders, etc. Thus, it is useful to develop a detailed segmentation of these groups to be able to capture the demands of each one and effectively answer their needs. Another important aspect of reputation management in companies that are developing reputational strategies and corporate intangibles management is the need to develop an internal culture based on reputation, considering the directions and the obstacles for building reputation. Iberdrola, for example, defines five axes of its process: product, culture, segmentation, experience and feedback. It also takes into account non-financial indicators, which place highlight those aspects that have to do with the company’s behaviour towards its stakeholders and how they response to it. Vestas, a company who works in the power generating sector, organized its business strategy around a clear goal: becoming the world’s most recognized company by contribution to the positive environmental change achieved though intelligent use of the wind energy. Vestas defines four key stakeholders, whose cooperation is fundamental for creation of shared value, strengthening the company’s competitive position and achieving better business results. . After passing the initial stages of its journey (preliminary analysis aiming to define the strategy), reputation arrived to the next stage, characterized by measurement and showing its true impact on the business. Kasper Nielsen from Reputation Institute believes that there are several features that characterize best companies in the area of reputation management and that determine the key challenges that companies will face in the near future. Those are classified in four groups: business logic, intelligence and analysis, management and control and implementation. Companies willing to make progress in the reputation journey need to relate to their stakeholders and be aware of their reputation at every point of their strategic decision-making process. This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership and among other sources contains references to the statements made by Carlos Martínez Lozoya, Iberdrola’s Director for Corporate Reputation, Morten Albaek, Vestas Global Vice President for Marketing, Communication and Corporate Relations and Kasper Nielsen, Partner and Director of Reputation Institute Denmark, made during the 17th International Conference on Corporate Reputation, Identity and Brand Competitiveness: The Reputation Journey, organized by Reputation Institute in

1. However, it may be even more challenging and
important to overcome divisional barriers that
exist within organizations, establish processes
and procedures for reputation management and
tap into the research on intangibles management.
Executives responsible for managing intangible
assets will have to face these challenges in the
near future.
Segmenting the stakeholder universe
José Carlos Martínez Lozoya, Iberdrola’s Director
for Corporate Reputation, believes that a lot of
information is obtained through an in-depth
and detailed segmentation of the stakeholder
universe. This information is then used for
developing strategies and action plans focused on
corporate reputation.
The executive argues that such segmentation
is necessary since the success of strategies and
plans largely depends on their capacity to
capture the demands and expectations of various
stakeholder groups.
Extensive use of social networks and digital
technologies in relations with the stakeholders
facilitate this segmentation and provide detailed
information about these groups, their interest in
the improvement of the company’s activity, their
demands and expectations. This information also
helps to anticipate potential reputational risks.
Currently, direct and indirect experience of dealing
with the corporate brand or umbrella brand (which
fundamentally determines the value represented
by reputation) has to do not only with consumers,
customers or users, but also with the multitude of
other stakeholders (especially employees, investors
and shareholders), as well as their interaction and
the fact that their roles may change depending on
the moment of contacting the company and sharing
their opinion about this company.
The culture of reputation
Anotherimportantaspectofreputationmanagement
in companies that, like Iberdrola, are the leaders in
developing reputational strategies and corporate
Most of the efforts aimed at improving corporate reputation today are focused on
the impact that reputation has on business, gauging this impact and obtaining the
information necessary for defining reputational strategy and placing intangibles in
the centre of the overall business strategy.
Strategy Documents
I57/2015
Best practices and future
challenges in Corporate
Reputation management
Reputation
Insights & Trends
This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership and among other sources contains references
to the statements made by Carlos Martínez Lozoya, Iberdrola’s Director for Corporate Reputation, Morten Albaek, Vestas Global Vice
President for Marketing, Communication and Corporate Relations and Kasper Nielsen, Partner and Director of Reputation Institute
Denmark, made during the 17th
International Conference on Corporate Reputation, Identity and Brand Competitiveness: The Reputation
Journey, organized by Reputation Institute in Barcelona on June 5 - 7, 2013.

2. Insights & Trends 2
Best practices and
future challenges in
Corporate Reputation
management
intangibles management, is the need to develop an
internal culture based on reputation, aligned with
reputation and driven by reputation.
According to Martínez Lozoya, knowing the
directions and, maybe more importantly, the
obstacles for building reputation is probably more
important than developing a reputation plan. When
Iberdrola started its reputation journey back in
2004, it defined the following 5 axes of the process:
1. Product: it should be the key.
2. Culture: it should be inclusive.
3. Segmentation: it should be accurate.
4. Experience: it should be excellent.
5. Feedback: it should be ongoing.
Traditionally, financial indicators are viewed as the
key business indicators. However, non-financial
indicators place on emphasis on those aspects that
have to do with the company’s behaviour towards its
stakeholders and, above all, stakeholder’s response
to these actions of the company.
Satisfaction and commitment, relations and
recommendations, loyalty and fidelity, innovation
and differentiation are reflected by the so-called
non-financialindicatorsthataccordingtoIberdrola’s
Director for Corporate Reputation, truly represent
the profitability and sustainability of the company’s
business, its economic efficiency and success in the
long run.
A project focused on reputation
In this sense, the case of the Danish company Vestas
is truly paradigmatic. The company, like Iberdrola,
works in the power generating sector, and assumed
a strategic sustainability approach, focusing on
the wind energy and wind as the driving force of
social and environmental changes – thus linking its
activity to prevention of the climate change.
Morten Albaek, the company’s Vice President
for Marketing, Communication and Corporate
Relations, says that the corporate information of
this Nordic firm speaks for itself: in 2012, when
Vestas reached a record high level of perception by
its customers, it reported the highest turnover since
the moment of its merger and re-launch in 2003.
Vestas organized its business strategy around a
clear goal: becoming the world’s most recognized
company by contribution to the positive
environmental change achieved though intelligent
use of the wind energy.
Vestas defines four key stakeholders, whose
cooperation is fundamental for creation of shared
value and building reputation:
1. Customers.
2. Employees.
3. Technical and financial experts.
4. Communication media.
These actors made it possible for the company to
be perceived as the world’s best company in this
sector. Vestas closely tracks its reputation with
each of these stakeholders, monitoring progress or
decline in their perceptions.
According to Albaek, response time is another
element that differentiates this company when it
comes to implementation of action plans that have
a direct impact on reputation, and, consequently,
on the bottom line. The truth is that reputation not
“Companies
willing to
become the
leaders in
developing
reputational
strategies need
to develop
an internal
culture based
on reputation,
aligned with
reputation
and driven by
reputation”
Graph 1: Tangible and intangible indicators
Source: José Carlos Martínez, 17th International Conference on Reputation, Identity and Brand Competitiveness, 2013.
Indicators
Profitability
Sales
Cost efficiency
Technology
Reputations
Relationships
Transparency
Differentation
Talent
Satisfactio
Innovation
Culture + values
Lo intangible
Intellectual
property
Quality of
employees
Labor
environment
Unallocated
goodwill
Community
support
Sustainability
Brad loyalty
Tangible Values
(Generally Audited Financial Information)
Financial Capital
Physical Assets

3. Insights & Trends 3
Best practices and
future challenges in
Corporate Reputation
management
only helps to strengthen the company’s competitive
position, but also leads to better business results.
Maybe one of the best examples in this sense is
the special label created by Vestas for products
developed with the use of the wind energy
(WindMadeTM
), an idea that reflects the company’s
tagline Wind: It means the world to us!
Vestas believes that social innovation in its sector
should move away from Green washing and stake
on the transparency by using the labels that point to
the kind of energy used in the production process,
thus encouraging producers to choose wind as the
energy source used in the operations.
The commitment of Vestas to the social and
environmental change is proven by its support
of humanistic capitalism through integrating
intangibles into the management process and
creating shared value in the long run.
Conclusion: four new keys
After passing the initial stages of its journey
(preliminary analysis aiming to define the strategy),
reputation arrived to the next stage, characterized
by measurement and showing its true impact on
the business.
Kasper Nielsen from Reputation Institute believes
that there are several features that characterize best
companies in the area of reputation management
and that determine the key challenges that
companies will face in the near future:
1. Business logic (present in 50 % of companies):
a. Aim.
b. Alignment.
c. Reputation.
2. Intelligence and analysis (performed
by 33 % of companies):
a. Evaluation.
b. Measurement tools and indicators.
c. Procedures.
3. Management and control (performed
by 26 % of companies):
a. Planning.
b. Management.
c. Control.
4. Implementation (performed
by 38 % of companies):
a. Integration.
b. Investment.
c. Recommendation.
Companies that are likely to make progress in the
reputation journey have a narrative and a story
that make different dimensions of this company’s
activity meaningful, they find ways to relate to their
stakeholdersandareawareoftheirreputationatevery
point of their strategic decision-making process.
“Reputation
management
is passing
from the
initial stage
of analysis
to the stage
of measuring
and demons-
trating
reputation’s
true impact
on business”
Graph 2: (Why) Are we wasting our lives?
Source: Morten Albaek, 17th International Conference on Reputation, Identity and Brand Competitiveness, 2013.
HumanismCapitalism
The Sweet Spot

4. Leading by
reputation
©2015, Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership
A foundation established by major companies aiming to excel in the management of intangible assets and facilitate promotion of strong
brands with a good reputation and a capacity to compete on the global markets. Our objective is to become the driving force, which would
lead and consolidate professional reputation management as a strategic asset, fundamental for building value of companies around the
world.
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