C-suite executives and boards are increasingly paying attention to reputation risk and its management and mitigation. Various studies have shown that reputation risk has become one of the most important risk areas leaders are concerned with.

Many are prioritising investments in maturing their brand and reputational risk programmes, and exploring the interconnectedness of operational and reputational risks.

(Image: Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)

There is a clear need to focus on how reputation risk should be addressed as a management imperative, and what the role of communications functions and business leaders should be.

In a new study by ReputationInc and the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD), 73% of respondents say that reputation risk identification and management is more important than it was five years ago. Reputation risk management is an evolving area that is addressed very differently from organisation to organisation. The research points to a number of essential ‘building blocks’ of effective reputation risk management (see image below):

1. Risk classification  2. Internal versus external risks  3. Reputation intelligence  4. Risk governance 5. Culture  6. Leadership

For more about these building blocks, read the article by ReputationInc's Dennis Larsen and Dr. Kerstin Liehr-Gobbers in issue 01/2019 of Communication Director.