Transcript: Reputation Management thought leadership

Bobbie Ramsden-Knowles, Partner, PwC Reputation and Resilience Leader, PwC UK:

I’m Bobbie Ramsden-Knowles and I’m joined today by Andrew Griffin, an issues and reputation management specialist and a co-author of the paper.

Now Andrew we spoke to a number of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability directors across a number of high-profile organisations, all of which were at different stages in their ESG maturity.

What were perhaps the two key insights that really came to life for you in the research?

Andrew Griffin, The Griffin Consultancy:

Well first, I think an insight is that ESG has taken something that was a little bit marginalised in reputation management and really made it mainstream in many, many organisations. From my perspective, and I’m sure from yours, it’s great to see that ESG has helped stimulate the creation of some of those structures and governance and discipline around reputation management that we’ve been encouraging clients to create for many years now.

I think the second point is that ESG has encouraged organisations to create and then follow a purpose.

Bobbie:

I couldn’t agree more and I think the other two points that stood out for me were firstly that actually the role of corporate affairs has changed within this context, and actually, communications specialists need to have a really deep understanding now of ESG issues, and be able to have the courage to identify them in organisations, in order that they can be managed in a timely manner.

I think secondly, the point is recognising ESG transformation is going to hit bumps in the road, and communications specialists have a really important role in identifying issues early, planning and preparing for those issues with the business, but also ensuring and driving that resilience in an organisation.

It was a fascinating piece of research, and thank you so much for joining and listening to this today. This is just a short summary of the key points that came out of the insights for us, and I hope you will go and read our full paper now around reputation management in the era of ESG.