During the months of January and February 2011 NetEquity has produced a study on the corporate reputation management trend (in hereinafter CR) in enterprises of our country2. This study was conducted on a sample comprised of a total of 187 interviewed on fi rst-level positions (CEO, General Managers, advisors, etc) major foreign and Spanish multinationals in this country.

As noted in Graphic 1 “The CR importance in the coming years”, corporate reputation will become more important in the coming years with an increase of 20%, becoming important to 69% of the large multinationals. There are companies that have incorporated this new discipline within General Directorates of first level in the contributions made in the current analysis of corporate reputation.

This is due to major corporations and multinationals currently are involved in very complex relationships with their audiences and markets as a result of the global scenario that they are living both in the fi nancial sector and in the information sector. Companies need to ensure their sustainability and dependent on sustainable relationships with their strategic public in short and long-term. But to achieve them, the company must perform its work under values professionally ethical, not only under values legally recognized in the country where operate without forgetting that they move in a globalized world. Thus, anywhere in the world

strategic audiences will authenticate and reach a consensus on their company perception which will guarantee the future of it. In the dialogue with the stakeholders, the commitment should reach on what the company can give but never to create expectations that cannot be they guaranteed.

In the trends study on corporate reputation in Spain companies expected, as shown in Graphic 2 of the “existence of the CR area in the organizations in Spain”, this area develops up to 16.9%. In the research is confi rmed that in a 45% there is already a specifi c area of corporate reputation, considering as such which has at least one person on staff. According to the trends study, the corporate reputation will have direct dependence framed on the fi rst corporate level in the next two years, as confi rmed in Graphic 3 the “Growth of CR areas in Spain”. Specifi cally, the sample collected says that ideally that this profi le has increased direct dependence of the Presidency and CEO or General Directorate and it reduces their dependence on the Communication Directorate. Therefore, the main CEO and managers of this country consider that corporate reputation should evolve in a direction that increasingly more dependent on the Presidency or the Chief Executive and less of the area of communication. Very similar fi gures are given to support this study that currently these directorates have 30% a direct dependency in Presidency or the Chief Executive and 40% of President Offi ces or Chief Executive. However, the dependence of the

A strategic direction for corporate reputation

Chief Reputation Offi cer (CRO)1

Reputation

Strategy DocumentsA02 / 2011

Articles

1. Chapter 5 of the doctoral thesis “the Chief Reputation Offi cer (CRO), a new model of corporate reputation”, Ana María Casado, Universidad de Málaga, 20112. Study carried out by NetEquity and loaned byel Foro de Reputación Corporativa for research of the doctoral thesis “the Chief Reputation Offi cer (CRO), a new model of

corporate reputation”, Ana María Casado, Universidad de Málaga, 2011

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Department of communication is 10%, since that in the study the communication directorates have been integrated in the Presidency Offices, because of the multidisciplinary dedication in many more areas were not exclusively for communication and where worked already intangible assets. In addition to finding the first specific corporate reputation directorates in Spanish and foreign companies and multinationals studied, appears in the year 2001, a new name that identifies this figure Chief Reputation Officer or CRO.

“Nowadays, the Corporative Reputation Directorates have a 30% of Presidency and 40% of the Chief Executive dependency“

Recently, in May 2011 created in Wikipedia (the section of Management Occupations) the name and definition of this figure: “Chief Reputation Officer (CRO) is a new Executive position in a corporation, company, organization or institution, usually reports directly to the CEO or the Board of Directors and belongs to the Executive Board of Directors.” “He/She is responsible for the reputation, brand, Public Relations / Public Affairs; He/She is in charge of the integrated management, and effective and efficient coherence and consistency of all internal and external communications, all in all virtual and physical points of contact, in order to create a favorable base for strong and lasting relationships with the stakeholders on which the Organization depends”. CRO main functions:

1. To implement an integrated communication policy actively incorporated into the organization’s global business strategy.

2. To understand the market, and company strategic public and to provide knowledge and tools to the business to improve perceptions and behaviors favorable to the company. 3. To build strong relationships with the stakeholders.

4. To support the organization in creating strategic alignment of a company’s vision, mission and values, both internally and externally.

5. To help the organization in creating a strong corporate brand.

6. To advise the organization in creating and enhancing a sustainable reputation.

7. To support and to advise the organization in the identification and mitigation of reputational risks.

8. Preparing top executives and management throughout the business for intense persuasive communication with the stakeholders.

9. To advise and to support the CEO and top executives in building and maintaining his/her personal reputation.

10. To develop an integrated management dashboard to measure the corporate communications, brand, reputation and intangibles assets, and to reveal the impact at accounting level towards the business and the return of investment (ROI).

There are other evidences at international level of the CRO, where reference is made to the importance of creating this new role to eliminate the fragmented manner in which the companies deal with their strategic publics. According to Charles Fombrun, CEO of Reputation Institute, this fragmentation is given by the departmental area as functional silos (marketing, finance, human resources), with a minimum chance to contact or to be coordinated. This applies, for example, in relationship areas with the shareholder, customer, employee, the Government, the community, etc. This is what makes that there is a reduced overall understanding of the determining

aspects for reputation. This fragmentation damages the company competitiveness and increases the risk and vulnerability to the crisis.

Fombrun suggests that to exploit the reputation capital and build strong companies, a new figure or role at the Executive level must be developed in the companies, as it is the case with the CRO. He remind that many companies appoint a CFO (Chief Financial Officer) to safeguard the financial capital, a COO (Chief Operating Officer) to monitor operations, and a CIO (Chief Information Officer) to control and manipulate the corporate databases. For this reason, he suggested that to address the intangible assets of a company and to build leading companies, it should institutionalize new roles and structures, as it is the case of the CRO. In the past two years, there are some more precise definitions which demonstrate that the CRO is a figure that is implemented in international companies:

Importance of CR in the coming years

Source: The Chief Reputation Officer (CRO): A New Model for Reputation, 2011.

Has taken / will become more important.

Maintains / maintain its importance.

Decreased / decrease its importance.

Last 2 years

Next 2 years

This year

100%–

90%–

80%–

70%–

60%–

50%–

40%–

30%–

20%–

10%–

0%–

49%44%

48%54%

35%

64%

Chief Reputation Officer (CRO)

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According to Morten Albaek, senior Vice President of Marketing & Customer Insight, Vestas of Reputation Institute Denmark, “the description of the CRO work emerges at the same time that the reputation management comes to be regarded as a vital professional career for the next generations of corporate strategists”. He continues confirming that it is time that companies invest in training for the reputation directorate and it is built on five types of skills (cognitive, analytical, processes, communication and organizational) necessary to create strengths that enhance the worldwide most respected companies of the future. This will create reputation intelligence within an organization to find out how to manage a strong enough reputation as the company survives as a single leader and generate favorable market conditions”.

“The CRO must have cognitive, analytic, of process, communication and organization skills to interact with the stakeholders”

On the other hand Anthony Johndrow, managing partner for North America of Reputation Institute, confirms that the CRO to develop this function must fulfill five types of skills:

1. Cognitive skills: They must have knowledge about the business functions as well as notions in communication, especially of KNOW-HOW better: “savoir-faire” in their specific sector. As mentioned in our study, a multidisciplinary profile with training in communication and economic is important and, also a business wide knowledge, preferably with experience in various positions within the company and the sector. If the CRO does not have these abilities it will be very difficult to introduce transversely in the company the corporate reputation. And this is one of the main functions, the ability to lead the company globally towards a model of reputation to ensure the company sustainability.

2. Analytical skills: They must a causal thinking

and analyzing situations in context. It is very important, with the acquired knowledge, to analyze and to interpret the reputation reports or perception studies to analyze the different contexts, to understand them and to know the causes that generate within the organization or externally certain perceptions.

3. Process skills. It is the ability to manage the change, as well as to facilitate the coordination and implementation. In this sense, when companies undergo new adaptation situations,

takeover bids, mergers or crisis, the CRO must have an important weight in the advice to manage that change. It begins to see, but in small percentages, reputation directors that they are involved in the adaptation process in a takeover bid or who run the crisis Committee. Also notes how, within his/her institutional functions already commented, the CRO advises the Human Resources Department on management and change of the organization culture aspects.

4. Communication skills. It is important that the CRO has the capacity to establish the different types of messages and strategic contents on corporate reputation, both in traditional media and the new online media. In some answers issued in the study to the CRO on their roles, some of them declared that they had to watch over the messages issued from any area of the company were consistent, both internally and externally, and were along the lines of action of the company. The function of watching over the consistency of the transmitted message is important in the CRO role, but should not have as main daily task the communication with media, as showed still as a trend in the research that it had been done. For that there are the Communication Directorates or the Press Directorates. CRO maximum function is to set up and establish systems and procedures to work globally, at all levels and positions, in a model of corporate reputation to provide values to their audiences and differentiate them in time. Against the brand management in the 20th century with a differential positioning of companies mainly based on the features of the product and service communication, nowadays the brand is surrounded with other aspects such as its own reputation and the company reputation, something that cannot be built quickly and is not about specific communication campaigns. We are talking about the brand is surrounded with aspects that must be managed transversely in the company, such as: the transparency values, professionalism, credibility and confidence that we generate through the company performance and the experience that the clients have with the company’s brand. In this point the CRO has a lot of to contribute in the coming years.

5. Organizational skills. It is important is the ability to persuade, to align corporate directorates towards their areas management or how to contribute to the corporate reputation improvement and, in a nutshell, to attract revenues and value to the company. We have a new model aimed to seek the “prestige” excellence in management relationships with our stakeholders.

According to Cees M. B. Van Riel, Professor at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, and Charles Fombrun, communication and relations with the

Chief Reputation Officer (CRO)

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different audiences are from different corporate areas and the interests in the treatment and to promote their relations with each of them are very focused on their departmental objectives and the holistic vision is lost in many cases. This can prompt to contrary perceptions, fruit of an overall inconsistency and not work towards a global reputation model, where it has to be thought about the impact of an overall action.

There are clear examples of this inconsistency. British American Tobacco, the same day that the manufacturer carried out an advertising campaign very ostentatious and expensive in a German newspaper, in the same newspaper and on the opposite page announcing the dismissal of 123 employees at the Amsterdam branch. A similar inconsistency damaged the AT&T image in January 1996, when the company announced plans to reduce 50,000 jobs, at the same time as the financial pages announcing record income for shareholders. Public

lynching that these companies received damaged their reputation completely. Another example was the leading manufacturer of Boeing airlines. The company decided to put a full page advertisement on the back page of The Economist the same day of the second anniversary of September 11 attacks on New York: tragic date in that fundamentalist terrorists hijacked Boeing aircrafts to use them as missiles and thus destroy the twin towers.

From these situations can be deduced that there was a systematic failure of traversal integration in the communication systems of these companies and that the instance from which were managed these communications, this instance does not thought about the impact on the repercussion on the overall reputation. These inconsistencies generated negative impacts on the strategic public perceptions, and a reputation that had been a result of many years of work could discredit by lack of coordination. These examples show companies where there is

not a figure to ensure corporate reputation, and companies where this figure stems for in some cases accidentally or by an exclusive investment in communication. When this type of inconsistency happen, the company suffers with their audiences a loss of credibility hard to recover, in addition to viewing damaged their sustainability and their leadership position and competitiveness in the market. In the 21st century, companies not already lead by themselves and by their good products, but audiences are that validate their leadership. The companies are positioned not only because they are doing everything very well, are public/stakeholder which should have that perception. And begin to create a consensus on this new reputation model starting with the organization itself.

‘‘Communicative inconsistencies generate negative impact on the stakehoders perceptions, and a reputation damaged with the passage of time’

Companies are increasingly closer in terms of what they offer to their strategic publics. What makes them really different are intangible assets as their corporate reputation, their brand, their contribution to the governance of the country or countries where the companies fulfill their activity (public affairs), their commitment to their public (corporate social responsibility or CSR), their identity values, and their corporate culture or way to work and interact with their audiences (their truth, credibility, ethics and trust). And this is one of the CRO functions: to coordinate these intangibles assets that are fragmented by different departmental directorates and requiring a centralization of its management to monitor and create sustainable business in the long term.

In the coming years will be shown a greater number of companies that will integrate this new corporate reputation model as a priority in enterprises that bet by a strategic direction to ensure their sustainability and their leadership.

In this new company management model, intangible assets will be the differentiating factor and the figure or role of the CRO will lead systems and processes for implementation. Therefore, in addition to report to the first level, in this new model the CRO could occupy positions as the CEOs and participate as a member of the Board of Directors, in decision-making at the highest level. The trend is that the decision of intangible assets strategies will work with the President or CEO, and reputation rates and the economic impact on the company value report directly with measurement tools. However, training

Existence of the RC area organizations in Spain

Source: The Chief Reputation Officer (CRO): A New Model for Reputation, 2011.

36,9%This already exists

16,9%

63,1%This does not exist

23,1%

It is planned to create it in the next 2 years

No, there are no plans to create it

Chief Reputation Officer (CRO)

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in measurement tools and the development of tools that are integrated into the organizational balanced scorecard, it is one of the subjects to improve, and in some cases to develop. Among the CRO tasks will be ensuring that all persons who work within the organization, are aligned with corporate reputation as a global company strategy and think of how it impacts their work and their relations with the public on the reputation. This must be like that because, in short, the professional work of each employee of the company and its consistency with the corporate values in the performance of their work, can generate favorable perceptions of their public/stakeholders, which can be translated in a revaluation, becoming a reference in the markets where work and thus to attract capital and investment. Examples of companies who are working transversely with the rest of corporate directorates to implement corporate reputation in the global strategy of the company have already seen. However, proposed that to guarantee their implementation, is not only important consensus with the different departments, but also there must be a dependency of the different directorates (Marketing, Communication, Human Resources, Operations, Financial, etc.) in the direct reporting of actions that impact on corporate reputation.

For this to happen, this profile needs:

• First of all, work at the forefront with CEO or managing directors of the Board.

• Second, is needed to be granted sufficient authority to implement the corporate reputation model in directorates or departments when the consensus with the different areas with which the CRO is working, is lengthened so much in time and it is necessary to make agile decisions.

• Thirdly, should achieve that the reputational corporate values are integrated as part of the work performance of the internal audiences’ day by day (at all hierarchical levels) and are part of the reputation of the President or CEO, Member of the Board of directors or the corporate governance Committee. This way, ensure that do not create inconsistencies within the organization. In this aspect, the CRO must advise and also work with the Human Resources directorate because these are the foundations for building a company’s reputation.

• Fourthly, the CRO must work with all departmental areas which have relations with external audiences to work externally with consistency and not forgetting the corporate and ethical values that contribute to corporate reputation.To that end, it is important that different corporate

directorates are proactive and non-reactive in the definition and implementation of processes and homogeneous systems in the broadcasting of messages consistent with these strategic corporate values and work with a global calendar of actions to not overlap aspects that might damage the perception of the organization at the global level or corporate areas or to specific Business Units.

However, the CRO cannot control everything, or be everywhere. What he/she should done is to have a management or strategic area that work with the different general directorates and business units, involving all corporate areas, familiarize them, train them in this discipline at the operational level and work contact points with audiences for what he/she needs to report their actions.

‘In the next few years can see a greater number of companies that will integrate a new corporate reputation model as a priority in their leadership’

Ultimately the CRO and the entire department will work to implement processes and continuous and unified monitoring tools within the organization these tools will be used by all departments. In this way, he/she will have alert systems that will facilitate the work not only CRO, but the different corporate areas. These systems will allow knowing in which points of contact with the public potential risks / opportunities have been identified and how to resolve them quickly or take advantage of them as business opportunities for the company. The Spanish multinationals are currently working on this management implemented the reputation as a strategic model. Therefore, the CRO is a strategic directorate which must decide together with the CEO and senior management the strategy of intangible assets: the company’s reputation, the reputation of the CEO, brand, CSR, identity, corporate culture and communication3. Hierarchical dependence of the CRO should be direct CEO; given the contribution of value the intangible assets contribute to the sustainability and leadership of the company. This is reflected by those currently engaged in this function and made reports that measure the quantitative impact that have intangible assets on the company’s global strategy. For the rest of General Directorates, they would depend on the CRO in what concerning the reporting of those aspects that can affect intangible assets which would be within his/her competence of

Chief Reputation Officer (CRO)

3. When we talk about communication, also includes Institutional Relations, Public Affairs, External Relations, Corporate Communication, Internal Communication, Business Communication, Financial Communication, Crisis Communications, etc.

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labor. In addition, the CRO must advise CEO when deciding on the global strategy through a reputation model that will allow knowing:

1. What is the relationship and the perception of the strategic public and if these relations are sustainable over time.

2. Risks and opportunities that can generate such management.

3. How to reduce the risks to save costs to businesses and take advantage of these opportunities to be leaders and improve profit and loss account.

‘The employees professional work and their consistency with the corporate values in the performance of their work, generate favorable to the stakehodlers perceptions’

Companies to continue developing and promoting a model of corporate reputation and intangible assets management in their global strategic plan in the coming years will ensure their success, leadership and sustainability. But this is not only achieved with a cross-cutting implementation made by a consultant, this multidisciplinary figure needs to know the particularities of the business, the public, the sector and the surroundings, the scope of the communication will not be his/her top priority in his/her functions and ordinary tasks. His/her main priority must be the integrated management of the intangible assets to ensure consistency and alignment of the audiences with the company at all levels.To that end, it is essential to develop channels that encourage continuous dialogue with the strategic public, both internal and external. A company which based its global strategy on a model of corporate reputation will be more tangible value in the profit and loss account the support and acceptance of their audiences and markets where it operates, and will be the cover letter to enter new markets where the company wants to enter. A significant step in this direction has been the birth of La Fundación Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership, May 29, 2011. This Foundation, fruit of the work developed over a decade by el Foro de Reputación Corporativa and el Instituto de Activos Intangibles4, was publicly presented at international level on June 28, 2011.

The companies within this Foundation represent 70% of the market capitalization of the Ibex 35 companies listed in Spain. Within their objectives is the intangible assets consolidation as a key factor to achieve excellence in the company businesses and introduce the institutionalization in their companies in a new role, the CRO, as a strategic senior management, who directs the management of the intangible assets5. This new institution makes an international leap to help companies to manage their intangible assets anywhere in the world of their reputation, and to provide ethical and technical training of the figure that should lead this direction, the CRO as well as the roles of persons who are under the direction. Delegations

of foreign multinationals in our country are mainly dedicated to adapt the local corporate reputation strategy, but in many cases they have no knowledge nor training in tools through which could measure if their local actions are contributing not only to the reputation of their company in the country but their contribution at the global level. What is due to unique monitoring they have are data offered on market shares, studies on the sense of social networks or media analysis, but not much more. And their appearance in the rankings was the result of having done well the actions marked from their head quarters. Therefore, the internationalization of this Foundation will allow creating a platform to implement training in reputation management models, to publicize the tools for its measurement in over 60 countries or branches where the Spanish multinationals of this institution are present, and enforced over 750,000 employees and more than 1,800 million customers and consumers. It is one

Chief Reputation Officer (CRO)

Growth Areas in Spain RC

Source: The Chief Reputation Officer (CRO): A New Model for Reputation, 2011.

Últimos 2 años

Próximos2 años

Este año

100%–

90%–

80%–

70%–

60%–

50%–

40%–

30%–

20%–

10%–

0%–

41% 41% 38%

29%

37% 37% 37%

29% 29%

Others

Secretary General / Legal and risk area

Marketing area

Area Human Resources

Communication area and / or Institutional Relations

CEO / General

Presidency

7%

7% 7%

7%

7%

9%4%6%

3%3%

3%

2%

4. Corporate reputation Forum (fRC), created in 2002 by four large companies Agbar, BBVA, Telefónica and Repsol, has worked during this time with its members in reputation steering and management models to help adding value to their companie-members. On the other hand the need to create a intangible assets doctrine and its management, led to the creation in 2004 of the Institute of Intangibles Assets – Instituto de Activos Intangibles - (IAI) formed by large companies, consulting firms, business schools and organizations which participated in its development.

5. This documentation in relation to this Foundation (objectives, guidelines, etc) has been provided by the same in a presentation called “Corporate Excellence-Centre for Reputation Leadership” and presented at the 15th International Conference on Corporate Reputation, Brand, Identity and Competitiveness in the USA (18-20 May 2011).

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further step and export corporate reputation models as well as their knowledge from their head quarters to their branches in other countries. In addition, they proposed to help companies achieve business excellence, work on:

1. The establishment of six activity lines based on intangible assets of reputation, brand, communication, public affairs, metrics and training.

2. Models and internal management tools.3. How to avoid inconsistency in the

company communications.4. The achievement of alliances. This is

what this Foundation understands that the CRO must lead from a new area.

In line with the professional field where will be professionally develop this discipline, it is understood that the term CRO is that best defines this profile for two reasons:

1. Although the term is Anglo-Saxon, is in line with creating a unification in the position naming and functions at the international level in multinational enterprises (as also happens with: CEO, CFO, CCO, etc.) and thus avoid the diversity of denomination.

2. Although not all intangible assets defined above are equal, all generated reputation because all of them have an impact on the perceptions and opinions of the stakeholders. Reputation is defined as perceptions that their audiences have of the company behavior and performance over time. The term CRO simplifies and unifies the management of these intangible assets in a single term.

Among the functions of this profile would ensure consistency and the unification of the transfer of values and principles of action from within outward. It must align the ethical values and issues of concern of the company with the expectations of the public through dialogue, perceptions of each of the audiences at these points of contact would be welcomed with coherence, credibility and confidence in the long term.

This profile must have a multidisciplinary training in three areas: communication, business and law. It is recommended the CRO knows well the organization and the sector where he/she works, because cross-relations with the different corporate directorates are essential in the performance of his/her management. It is much better if the professional CRO profile is in-house and has directed some of the strategic departments of the company, such as communication,

CSR, brand or marketing. The CRO should report directly to the Presidency and of course, work with reputation decision support systems. Through these systems can measure and monitor the perceptions of their strategic audiences in different countries where he/she operates and detect Corporate Affairs of interest to the company. Study the different monitors, tools, and most important (SAD - Sistemas de Ayuda a la Decisión) decision support systems that work with, proposes a global model for the corporate reputation management and proposes a SAD for the measurement of the direct perception of the stakeholders. Multinational companies have the need of this profile, and in some cases, their departments already have a number of people working in this area. According to the study conducted by the demand of major multinationals in this country, this professional profile is growing and will continue to develop over the next few years.

‘The CRO priority must be the integral management of intangible assets to ensure consistency and alignment of face to the public’

In conclusion, it detects the existence of career opportunities in which academically and in the field of research will be very interesting to train professionals, both in the direction of intangible assets, as in the management, the development of SAD systems and the development of measurement tools. The main national and international companies need to count on profiles in this discipline to contribute not only to improve corporate reputation of enterprises at the local level, but also in other countries where the company wish to start operating. We must not forget that we are in a global environment, both financial and informatively, and in which ICT (information and communication technologies) are playing a decisive role6.

CRO specific definition The CRO is a strategic directorate which decides jointly with the CEO and senior management the intangible assets strategy in the organization: corporate reputation, CEO reputation, brand, corporate social responsibility, identity, corporate culture and communication7. As strategic director participates in the strategy definition in the medium and long term in three ways:

1 CRO generates sustainable relations with its strategic audiences based on the principles

Chief Reputation Officer (CRO)

6. Social networks and the world 2.0 and 3.0 allow customers to share their experiences and perceptions with others from other countries about the company; or analysts whom consult the state of a company in different countries; or international media groups or organizations like Greenpeace that monitor environmental actions.

7. When we talk about communication, also includes Institutional Relations, Public Affairs, External Relations, Corporate Communication, Internal Communication, Business Communication, Financial Communication, Crisis Communications, etc.

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of dialogue, transparency, credibility, commitment and professional ethics.

2 CRO contributes to the acceptance, recognition and leadership across time of the company in its sector, market, environment and country in which it operates.

3 CRO develops a proactive policy to detect reputational risks and business opportunities.

Current position: Reports directly by 30% to the Presidency and 40% to the Chief Executive Officer. And he/she is part of the Executive Steering Committee.

Ideal Hierarchical Dependence: In those companies where they bet for integrating intangible assets in their strategic plan and strategic vision as guarantee of sustainability and leadership, this management must be independent and hierarchically depend directly of CEO, President or the Board of Directors. In addition, corporate directorates must have direct dependence of the CRO in aspects of reputation and their intangible assets to ensure success in the transverse introduction of the company’s reputation model.

The CRO should be part of the Crises, Corporate Governance, CSR and risk committees.

When an enterprise has a corporate reputation commission in the Board of Directors and an Audit Risks Commission, CRO should report both directly. In the case of the risks Commission CRO must report and work with issues related to the reputational risks.

The CRO functions are as follows:

1. To define the strategic plan of reputation and the rest of intangible assets according to the global strategy.

2. To lead and strengthen the reputation and leadership of the President or local CEO.

3. To adjust the plan locally for each country and export it to their delegations.

4. To Define training program for the establishment the corporate reputation in the culture: concepts, procedures and internal systems for employee profiles and management positions.

5. To define the reputation positioning to work together with the communication management.

6. To participate in the strategic forums or meetings of reference on the public agenda of the community or environment where the company performs its activity.

7. To participate in the decisions of the crisis cabinets.

8. Advising, tutoring, involving and managing the various General Directorates in the field of corporate reputation and rest of intangible assets.

9. To monitor and detect risks and reputational opportunities opposite the competence, within the sector and by country, and establish measures and processes with the involved corporate directorates.

10. To work on a SAD system to integrate in management dashboard the impact of the customer’s perceptions, contact points and how influence in the company profit and loss account.

11. To work in strategic alignment between the company interests and the all stakeholders expectations.

12. To ensure the internal and external consistency of their communications and in carrying out their actions to avoid confusion and noise on perceptions that stakeholders have of the company.

13. To define, redefine or adapt the corporate identity and the organizational culture.

14. To redefine and implement new business principles in code of conduct to improve reputation.

15. To perform all functions as area director.

CRO is linked with the different corporate managements, currently more to implement the strategic reputation model of the company, are, by order of importance, Communication, Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, Risk, Legal, Financial and, finally, R&D directorates. The participation with Presidency is 70% for the implementation of the corporate reputation model.

Training: His/her training must be multidisciplinary, primarily in different areas as communication, economic, marketing and law. It requires knowing the company and the sector, it is therefore recommended that the CRO has worked in different corporate directorates, because so he/she will have exhaustive knowledge of the work processes and it will be easier for the CRO to implement reputation programs with the different areas.

The discipline which has greater interest and which needs to study in deep is in SAD systems for the corporate reputation management, integrating them into the balanced scorecard of the company. These systems allow him/her to facilitate the intangibles assets measurement, expedite his/her decision-making, detecting with immediacy potential risks and reputational opportunities and corporate directorates and Business Units involved and, finally, evaluate areas of improvement and impact of corporate reputation in the company at the global level.

ConclusionsIn the 21st century corporations need a model of sustainability and differentiation because products and services offered to their customers are increasingly similar. In this situation, companies

Chief Reputation Officer (CRO)

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understand that they must focus their strategy on intangible assets, such as brand, communication, Public Affairs, etc.

All of these intangibles assets are aimed at achieving the corporate reputation that the companies need to increase their market value, strengthen their leadership and develop sustainable relationships with their audiences.

These relations are only possible if the company is able to align in the management model the perceptions that strategic public have about it, and if the company integrates corporate ethical and professional values in the good performance of the organization for their audiences, generating a confi dence climate and credibility sustained over time.

To ensure to introduce successfully the reputation and the intangible assets management, the CRO must have a separate management, but with a direct relationship with Presidency and the Board of Directors. In addition, the rest of corporate

directorates should be a functional dependency of this fi gure it refers to the management of reputation and intangible assets that have an impact on it. Only in this way it will be easier for companies to manage their reputation, and ensure an implementation and transversal management of corporate reputation with success, which will allow the company to maintain sustainable relationships in time with its strategic public and contribute to the plan for the future of the company.

Otherwise, if his/her dependence is not direct, it will be very diffi cult to have a perspective or position of distance when assessing the impact of the actions of the other areas on reputation. In addition, the CRO will be given a reduced view of the corporate reputation management, because it would apply primarily on areas and audiences that most affect the corporate governance, thus losing the holistic view on the overall reputation management. Less than a decade already confi rms that 33% of the CRO contribute to the defi nition of the overall company strategy.

Chief Reputation Offi cer (CRO)

©2011, Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership Business foundation created by large companies to professionalize the management of intangible assets and contribute to the development of strong brands, with good reputation and able to compete in the global market. Its mission is to be the driver which leads and consolidates the professional management of reputation as a strategic resource that guides and creates value for companies throughout the world.

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