ABSTRACT
Some reputation scholars back then wrote that the difference, averaged over time, between a company’s market cap and the liquidation value of its assets is reputational capital. But executives and scholars thought of reputation as intangible, so they scoffed at the term reputation management. But executives and scholars thought of reputation as intangible, so they scoffed at the term reputation management. Many communication agencies and even the big consultancies now list “reputation management” among their practice areas. The fact is that most of them stop at measuring and monitoring reputation, far short of managing it. Few companies or nonprofits take a rigorous, quantifiable approach to reputation management–measuring, monitoring and managing reputation assets and liabilities–yet such an approach is intrinsic to the concept of asset management. Like all other assets–a building or a product, for example–reputation has its liability side. So any reputation management plan has to measure, monitor and establish a plan for managing both the reputation assets and vulnerabilities/liabilities.
