Mastering Risk Management

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS REPUTATION?

‘Good name in man and woman dear my lord

Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;

’Twas mine, ’tis his, and hath been slave to thousands;

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed.’

[Othello, III, iii, 155–161]

As ever, Shakespeare got it right. Iago may have been cynically manipulating Othello, but he was right in the one key element of reputation – it is all about perception. It exists in the minds of others, and you neither own nor control their perceptions. Which makes it difficult to manage.

Your reputation has to be genuine and based on reality. If there’s a gap between what a firm does ...