We've all spent some time in front of the keyboard cursing
Windows. But when it comes to the media - and consumer perceptions
formed by the media - Microsoft has very little to worry about. The
company came out on top in the Media Reputation Index, an annual
assessment of how news coverage affects a company's reputation,
conducted by Delahaye Medialink and research group The Reputation
Institute. The study analyzed more than 350,000 news items covering
America's largest corporations.
The Top 5 Reputations
- Microsoft
- Walt Disney
- Wal-Mart
- IBM
- General Motors
The Bottom 5 Reputations
- TXU
- Mirant
- Dynegy
- WorldCom
- Enron
Tactics: Always stay on top of media perceptions of your
organization. Conducting qualitative, not just quantitative,
analysis of your standing with the press provides a key indicator
of how strong your reputation will be.
And don't ignore your own reputation when it is not directly
under fire. Crises elsewhere in the industry can call your own
credibility into question. Energy companies, for example, for the
most part ranked low on the Index this year following the Enron
debacle.