Reputation Management In Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

It takes 20 years to build up a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." (Warren Buffett) British Petrol, Deutsche Bank, Nike, Siemens, Volkswagen - what do these companies have in common? First, they are part of the world market leaders in their business area and successful trendsetters, e.g. British Petrol in sustainable resources, Nike in sports goods and Siemens in high technology. Second, all of them had these "five minutes" to ruin their reputation. They are perceived in close contact with environmental pollution, mass layoffs, child labour, corruption and fraud. What went wrong and how strong were the economical influences from these issues? In fact, these companies did not care enough about managing their reputation in an appropriate way and it is obvious that they underestimated the power of their stakeholders. Reputation Management comprises the total of a company's systematic activities to influence its reputation positively. By now it is regarded as a pivotal instrument to support corporate management. Due to their size and influence, multinational corporations dominated upcoming reputation issues for decades. But in the age of Internet and mobile communication reputation has become more visible for every size of company, which requires explicit management. As a result, Small and Medium-sized companies face a new challenge. This work will contribute in bringing more clarity into this situation."