By Kerryn Le Cordeur

However, the concept of reputation is the hardest to define, and it is also the most difficult to maintain, so it is therefore important to create industry benchmarks, which the Mail & Guardian and research partner, Plus 94 Research, have created with the Top Companies Reputation Index.

Whitfield introduced M&G Media Limited CEO, Hoosain Karjieker, who commented that brand reputation engenders loyalty and trust, and is the single biggest asset that a company possesses. He explained that over the past few months, the Mail & Guardian has commissioned research on the Top Companies Reputation Index, and this event would unveil the findings of Plus 94 Research’s research. He added that the recognition given to the three King reports on corporate governance, and the incorporation of aspects of the King II reports into the Companies Act bears testimony to South Africa’s commitment to the values of having reputable corporate entities.

Particularly relevant to this, Whitfield then called upon J Michael Judin to deliver a keynote address. Judin is the senior partner of law firm, Goldman Judin Inc and was the convenor of the Sub-Committee that wrote the Chapter on negotiation, mediation and arbitration in King III. He began by briefly taking guests on the journey through corporate governance in South Africa, saying that Mervyn King answered Nelson Mandela’s call in 1993 to write the first corporate governance report in South Africa, which was followed in 2002 by King II, and again reputation was a thread through that report, to make sure that corporate reputation was being properly looked after. He continued that when the committee sat down at the same time as the new Companies Act was being drafted and wrote King III, King III became the ‘Garmin’, showing directors how to avoid criminal liabilities stemming from the reach of the new Act. Here, reputation again was an important issue and was dealt with, but what was “frightening,” according to Judin, was to see, “what has happened in the biggest reputation tsunami that we’ve experienced – that of social networking – and its impact on reputation.” He feels that if one day there’s a King IV, probably the most substantive chapter in it will be on social networking.

Judin added that in the last few months, this has meant reputation management has become the most critical issue that organisations face, and yet he is surprised how little people understand and know what’s happening in the social networking field. He mentioned statistics such as that if Facebook were a country, it would be the third biggest country in the world, approaching 700-million users; that 50-billion tweets go out each day; and that brands are mentioned 25.5-billion times in the social media space. In this light, it takes nano-seconds, not five minutes, to destroy a reputation. Every one of those 700-million people on Facebook has the power to destroy your reputation in a nano-second, and once the information is out there, there’s no bringing it back.

In the old world, it was relatively easy to control your reputation because it was regional – the information would be on the radio or in the newspaper or people would share through word-of-mouth – but today the same information can travel the universe, so it becomes critically important that the intangible but invaluable asset that is reputation, a critical part of the sustainability of the organisation, is effectively managed and understood, with the correct policies and guidelines in place. When this is properly managed, you can leverage the power of your employees and consumers to “do for you what you could never possibly achieve.”

In this light, Judin commented that the timing of the launch of the Mail & Guardian’s Top Companies Reputation Index is “elegant, perfect and superb” and a tribute to the publication’s far-sighted thinking.

Whitfield then took to the podium to conduct the part of proceedings many companies and brands had been anxiously waiting for – the presentation of the Top 30 Companies in the Reputation Index. He explained that there is a business category, cited by business representatives, as well as a general category, cited by the general public. In the business category, Coca-Cola SA took the number one spot, with Absa the first runner-up and SABMiller the second, while in the general category, Coca-Cola SA once again took top honours, with Vodacom in second place and SABMiller again in third.

For more on the Top Companies Reputation Index, take a look at this week’s edition of the Mail & Guardian.