In principle, this should be a really useful measure. After all, unlike the indices that purport to show you which companies are the greenest, the most ethical, or the most accountable, this should be pretty solid right? It’s not measuring whether companies are good – it’s measuring whether people THINK they’re good. The latest Harris Poll has been produced purporting to give an update on the reputations of the ‘most visible companies’ to the US public.
Indeed, it is useful at a certain level. If you look at the detail, you get the pretty basic insight that multiple factors affect a company’s reputation. And generally, as you would expect, the most powerful of these arise from the customer’s own experience of dealing with the brand.
There is mixed news for those seeking hard causal evidence that what the activists would hold to be poor performance on social or environmental issues will automatically lead to diminished reputation. It’s not that it never happens – but there are more factors in the mix.
So, unsurprisingly, the banks and other financial institutions have taken a huge tumble on the reputation front. Let’s face it – if they hadn’t then we could have all dismissed the Harris Poll out of hand. Bank of America, AIG and Goldman Sachs are now living in the lowest reaches that have formerly seen companies like Enron and WorldCom.
If the products are good, people generally transfer the warm glow of approval to their assumptions about how the companies do in other areas too. Technology companies, however, are riding high. They are seen as offering solutions to many of our problems to a greater degree than anyone else. And the company sitting right on top of the pile is Apple, which scores a higher ‘Reputation Quotient’ than any other company in the history of the poll. Google has slipped to second place.
It’s worth noting this is partially an accident of the sector’s natural impacts. Some of the companies in heavy impact sectors, such as extraction, energy generation or chemicals – they can be just as committed to finding solutions. However, in that situation people are more inclined to disbelieve what they hear as being an attempt to cover up the industry’s negative impacts, or to assume that they’re only doing what the law requires. The tech sector gets credit because the person in the street doesn’t see them as having a big impact.
Ultimately, however, there is no real science in the Harris Poll. It provides interesting fodder for consideration, but often it is simply a statement of the obvious.
Companies seeking the business case arguments to bring the board onside for a renewed focus on values and social responsibility should start with more substantial stuff.
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