Reputation- it's just a story

"Reputation- it's just a story" was the title of a lecture given by Chris Fill (specialist in corporate reputation) at the University of Huddersfield Business School earlier in the week.

Some of the reasons/benefits Chris gave for managing corporate reputation included attracting quality resources and investment, gaining competitive advantage, differentiation, positioning and driving confidence and innovation.

In the same week, the University of Huddersfield had been named the Times Higher Education "University of the Year" due to its exceptional performance. This follows the award of Times Higher Education "Entrepreneurial University of the Year" in 2012. The university is developing a good story under the leadership of the Vice Chancellor Bob Cryan who has also won the "Inspiring Leader Award" at the Guardian Higher Education awards.

The university is now in the Top 10 of English universities for financial strength and has been declared debt free even though it is expanding its campus under its "building without borrowing" project. It is now in the Top 10 for student satisfaction (NSS 2012) and Top 10 for Graduate Employability. The vision "to be an inspiring, innovative and university of international renown" is well under way and the story is gaining momentum and clearly demonstrates how it might now be reaping the benefits outlined by Chris above.

In complete contrast is the damage the Charity Commission has done to the reputation of charities as the National Audit Commission reports today. Chris Fill mentioned in his lecture a number of reasons why stories get "disrupted", key ones here are managerial incompetence and negligence. The management team are now going to have to divert extra effort and energy into undoing the damage to their story so as to regain and build confidence (and funding) for the charities they represent.