More Resilience, Less Risk: Six Reputation Management Predictions for 2017

2016 kept everyone on their toes in terms of surprises. No need to repeat them here. But as we look out to 2017, there are six predictions I make for those considering risk and reputation management for the year ahead. Hint: challenge conventional wisdom and weary thinking and encourage a more dynamic, innovative and digital approach.

#1 – Rise of Chief Resilience Officer. No, not R for Risk or Reputation, but Resilience. Already a firm feature of many local authorities within the public sector, the Chief Resilience Officer is a role that would deliver immediate value to any corporation. Defined by The Rockefeller Foundation as “a top-level advisor (that reports directly to the city mayor), their task is to establish a compelling resilience vision (for his or her city), working across departments and with the local community to maximize innovation and minimize the impact of unforeseen events.” Bravo! Exactly what business needs in 2017.

#2 – Integration of Digital. In a recent research study my firm, Ruder Finn, undertook, 85% of 138 Communications Directors polled said they get most of their news from social media but only 23% were confident they were digitally/socially prepared to manage a reputational crisis. Expect to see the crisis “manual” permanently recycled in 2017. Don’t be sad, be honest: were they ever of any real use? Risk assessment and immediate response will soon be totally phone-based and fully digital. Corporations will also place social media at the centre of their response strategy for a simple reason: that’s where their problems will be first visible.

#3 – Challenge of ERM. Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”) has been shown, time and time again, that is has very little value when tested in the real world under real crisis conditions. Ask Wells Fargo, Malaysian Airlines, Mylan/Epipen, Dreamworld or VW how well their ERM worked for them? ERM is an analogue tool in a digital world. By all means do it, but don’t rely on it to offer any value other than being helpful for post-crisis finger pointing.

#4 – Reputation Becomes the #1 Business Risk. Reputation has been fairly zooming up every ranking over the last few years. There is no agreed, consolidated risk ranking benchmark, but those polled by Deloitte in 2014 ranked reputation risk as “more important or much more important than other strategic risks” their companies were facing. A global, or even more localised, major issue or crisis can, literally, traumatize corporations, colleagues and customers and lead to long-term business disruption. Reputation is a vital, fragile business asset that needs a lot of love. Make sure you hold it tight in 2017.

#5 – Embrace of AI. Smart companies (eg Unilever, P&G and numerous investment firms) are already there, but many are not. Artificial intelligence and data analytics are real, offer huge competitive advantage and are often totally absent from corporate planning or analysis. Bottlenose (www.bottlenose.com) predicted Brexit; Genic AI (www.genic.ai) predicted Trump. Weeks in advance. Why would companies not want this type of data built into their business and operations?

#6 – Engagement with Employees. We have (hopefully) come a long way from when the Marketing Director at HMV asked “how do I shut down Twitter?” when an intern voiced disappointment about firings in 2013. 2017 will see genuine engagement with employees by their employers when a company is facing reputational challenges. Why? In most cases, provided the company has not done something particularly stupid and/or bad, employees can be invaluable advocates and want to tell their families and friends what is happening. Think about it: if you employ, say, 10,000 people, each of whom has an average of 338 Facebook friends (Pew Research, 2016), then just 15% your employees could potentially reach close to 500,000 people. For context, the Financial Times reports a combined (paid print and digital) daily circulation of 800,000. Expect employees to become a much bigger part of issue and crisis communication. But only if they believe what their company is saying.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, wealthy, fake news and drama-free year. I personally forecast 2017 will be the year a) Prince Harry gets engaged to Meghan Markle, b) the DJIA and FTSE collapse by >30 per cent, c) Bitcoin valuation hits >$1500, d) the “dumb” phone makes a nifty comeback and e) we spend more time with people vs. screens.

Happy 2017!

Charles Lankester ([email protected]) is the Hong Kong-based EVP, Global Reputation & Risk Management at Ruder Finn (www.ruderfinn.com)

(This article first appeared in Branding in Asia - www.brandinginasia.com)