Customer Reviews

Managing Reputational Risk: Curbing Threats, Leveraging Opportunities (Institute of Internal Auditors Risk Management Series)

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This is both a very good overview of the principles and practice of risk management and an excellent application of the principles to managing risks to organisational reputation.

Reputation of an organisation is too often regarded simply as something for the public relations consultants. The author demonstrates the holistic nature of the influences on reputation and works through each of the aspects requiring management, and how they fit together.

The only disadvantage of the book is that, because it is so thorough, reading it in full requires a fair commitment of time and attention. To assist the reader, the chapter structure is logical and subsections clearly identified and the many tables and charts provide an effective summary of key points. For those with primary responsibility for an organisation's policies and practices relating to reputation, it is an invaluable reference.

The reputations of several major corporations (Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat and Tyco, to name a few) recently suffered from allegations of fraud, self-dealing, insider trading, accounting shenanigans and various other misdeeds. The sense of scandal became so pervasive that some businesspeople felt ashamed of their profession. Now, the mere rumor of misconduct is sufficient to send a company's stock price down. Ironically, in an era when the transnational corporations seem omnipotent in their globe-girdling might, many of them greatly resemble nubile maidens in an eighteenth century romance, their whole fate dependent on spotless and easily marred reputations. That being the case, every business and every business manager should prioritize the careful husbanding of reputation. We find that this book, which has been highly praised by some of the most estimable authorities on business ethics and management, offers a comprehensive, if sometimes pedantic, guide to every step of building, measuring, preserving and growing reputation capital.

This is an excellent work on reputational risk and definitely worth obtaining. It is a real shame, however, that there is not a more recent edition. The risk landscape has changed dramatically and a book on risk from 2003 is akin to a book on the Windows operating system from 2003 - significantly less valuable as time goes on.