1. Beyond Reputation Management:
The Quest For Corporate Integrity and Communication Candour
Ronel RENSBURG
2.Uluslararası İtibar Yönetimi Konferansı
3-4 Ekim 2013, İstanbul

2. Beyond reputation management:
the quest for corporate integrity and communication candour
Ronel Rensburg
University of Pretoria
South Africa

3. Objectives of the presentation
• The quagmire of the business environment and the lack of integrity -
defending reputation at all costs
• Why Aristotle is still relevant today?
• Enter corporate governance and communication’s licence to operate
• The Stockholm Accords
• The Melbourne Mandate
• Integrated reporting
• Moving beyond reputation
• Business integrity reporting through communication candour
• The way forward: not only corporate sustainability but business
continuity – creating a balance through communication capital

4. Global Corruption Barometer 2013

9. DANTE’S INFERNO

10. In the 8th circle of the vestibules of hell – the
corrupt politicians and the spin doctors: they
are punished by being thrown into a hole of
boiling pitch…
To this we add the corporate despots that run
perverted corporate regimes enshrined in the
cosmetics of PR under the veil of reputation
management

12. Greed and corruption through the centuries
Through the centuries, these phenomena have emerged for
periods ranging from a few years to a few decades. During
those periods,organisations arrogantly claimed to have
invented a new kind of economy, to which economic
fundamentals of production of goods and services for real
customers did not apply. They claimed to be making money
out of money. But sadly, these bursts of “creativity” always
proved to be unsustainable.

13. Therefore, according to Edelman and
others: today there is a dire crisis in
leadership and government across the
world- yet again….

14. So why do the teachings of Aristotle become relevant
again today?
Two reasons and his Politics and Rhetoric provide
answers

15. Reason 1: Chrematistics
“The act of getting property”
This can be natural – “true riches” is the limited amount needed
for a good life
This can be unnatural – when the “riches and property have no
limit” (Politics 1257a) – as in when the acquisition thereof
becomes harmful, excessive and greedy
And the people suffer…..

16. Reason 2: Rhetoric
Logos, ethos and pathos – still relevant in any communication
today
“By using the power of communication justly - one would do
the greatest good and unjustly – the greatest harm…”

18. Enter the King Reports on corporate governance
• The King l, ll, and lll Reports on corporate governance
• In chapter 8 of the King lll report communication finds its
“license to operate” in engaging relationships with
stakeholders – with all stakeholders and not only
shareholders
• This led to numerous different areas of investigation as to
strategic communication activities
• And the Global Alliance community went onwards to create
the Stockholm Accords….
18

19. The Stockholm Accords
19

20. 20
The Stockholm Accords, June 2010
• Governance
• Management
• Internal communication
• External communication
• Alignment between internal and external communication
• Sustainability

21. 21

23. And the concept of integrated reporting followed….
It now becomes pivotal that the “non-financial issues
and stakeholders in general” are becoming as important
as the “financial issues and shareholders specifically”.
Not only the organisation but everything within and
outside of business has a reputation to maintain:
individual leaders, culture, society, countries, the
earth…”

24. As it had been before the onset of integrated
reporting initiatives
An accountant’s perspective
A communicator’s
perspective
• Triple bottom line
• Managing financial, social and
environmental risks,
obligations and opportunities
• Profit
• People
• Planet
• Resilience over time
• Working with stakeholders to
solve the complex problems
we share
• People
• People
• People
24

25. What this means
• A resource-based view
of the organisation
• A bundle of tangible and
in-tangible assets
25

26. The wider world
• Complex
• Connected
• Compressed
• Co-dependent
• Context
• Co-creation
26

27. A new compact between business and society
• Everyone has a stake in the future
• The problems are too complex for singular answers
• Collaborative action is the only way forward
And the questions:
• How is a ‘right to be heard’ gained
• How is trust established?
• How is ‘engagement’ undertaken?
• What is the role of communication?
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28. What the Financial Times says
Future practices in business sustainability
• Stakeholder engagement
• Reporting and disclosure
• Life cycle analysis
• Environmental management systems
• All through transparent communication
• Beyond reputation management
• Integrated reporting towards integrity reporting
28

29. Enter corporate integrity…
Corporate character, values and ethics can no longer
remain static. Now, the decisions and actions organisations
and their stakeholders take, day after day, are on full and
almost immediate display. To earn trust, organisations and
all of the stakeholders must consistently behave in a
manner that is authentic with communication candour.
Corporate integrity is what corporate integrity does

30. Abraham Lincoln on reputation
Character is like a tree and reputation like a
sCharacter is like a tree and reputation like a
shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the
tree is the real thing…..ow.
The shadow is what think of it; the tree is the real
thing…..

31. Enter Winston Churchill
The difference
between
management and
leadership is
communication

32. Crucial roles for communication
Organisational purpose
Communication
management contribution
• Social orientation
• What is our role in society?
• What are our obligations?
• What are the implications for
our organisation?
• Values based: stakeholder -
oriented
• Essential to values and
strategy development
• Builds the organisation
• Maintains legitimacy
• Puts performance into
perspective
32
Constituting and Enabling

33. Crucial roles for communication
Corporate decision making
Communication management’s
contribution
• What is the shape of our
business?
• How shall we deploy our
resources?
• How will we build our
business?
• Internally oriented: resources
and capability oriented
• Informed decision-making
• Coaching management on the
communicative implications
• Communication capital and
the new accountabilities
• Respect in the corporate
lexicon
• A spiral of continuous
interaction
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34. Articulating communication as an asset – assisting reputation-building and maintenance
Articulating communication as competence - relationships and cultural alignment
Articulating communication as moral DNA – the organisation is not just an economic force,
but also a way of being social with all stakeholders

35. Core imperatives for communication management
• A profound understanding of the brand
• An acknowledgement of the changed nature of leadership
• Communication is NOT a soft skill
• Communication IS a core competence for organisations
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36. The results of strategic communication
• Sustainable world
• Sustainable communities
• Sustainable organisations
• Business continuity
• People
• People
• People
36

37. Business continuity and communication
37
Public sentiment is
everything….. with it nothing
can fail: without it nothing can
succeed.
Abraham Lincoln

38. Conclusion
And to Aristotle’s logos, ethos and pathos we
add mythos (corporate integrity through
communication candour)