Not a good reputation to have?
Many organisations are looking to ‘improve’ their reputation, to create an idealised image of themselves’. However this aspiration may be self-defeating. Organisations may pour significent financial resources into ‘improving’ their reputation and failing to actually achieve this aim or conversely the subsequent impact of this ‘improvement’ in reputation may have a negative impact on business performance.
A curious incident during a post-match interview raised questions regarding perceived and aspirational reputation. The manger of Tottenham Hotspur Harry Redknapp reacted angrily to being described as a ‘wheeler-dealer’, as can be seen in this clip.
This maybe a (over)reaction as a consequence of various tax matters he has been embroiled in; but is a reputation for being a ‘wheeler-dealer’ such a bad thing in football management?
This article in the Guardian certainly argues that Harry Redknapp should luxuriate in such a reputation. He is the most successful manager of Tottenham for over twenty years, achieving a place in the Champions League where countless other managers, with more prestigious reputations than he, had failed. Certainly their failure was not due to a lack of resources, Tottenham had spent more money in the transfer market, since 2003, than any other Premier League side (other than the super-rich Chelsea & Manchester City) and were reputed to be the richest side in Europe never to have graced the competition, with this lack of success was becoming an Albatross around the club’s neck.
What underpinned Redknapp’s success was an ability to motivate his team & provide some tactical know-how’ but most importantly create a balanced squad with some shrewd signings within minimal outlay, in comparison to previous regimes. These things are his ‘trade-mark’ , what his reputation has been built on and the reason why he was employed by Tottenham.
Reputations are funny things. One of the principle axioms of Reputation Management is ‘Stakeholders own reputations’ and we should always be aware of this. Positive reputations helps organisations go about doing business and doing so successfully, and this is no different for individuals. ‘Living off ones reputation’ may have negative connotations but it is one that pays dividends.
Reputations are there for a reason, they are created as a result of many different inputs that result from the projection of an image or identity both intentionally or unintentionally. A reputation is an artificial creation and the reputation that is created may not be the one that the subject, whether it is an organisation or a football manager, may like,or even agree with, but it is never the less a perceived reality. It is important that organisations and individuals don’t ignore all aspects of their reputation including those aspects they dis-like or disagree with.
Why? Well a reputation comes from personality, image and communication, it is related to some aspect of reality, and a particular reputation may not be a nice thing, but it may be effective and it may be what stakeholders are looking for.
Of course, a football manager would like a reputation for tactical genius, motivational and communications skills but is that necessary? One chairman of a football club was quoted at saying he would rather have a ‘lucky’ manager than a good manager. Every football club would like Jose Mourinho as their manager but of all the success he delivers he also has a reputation for being profligate in the transfer market; however his reputation for delivery silver-ware out-shines this negative aspect of his reputation.
Similarly, not all organisations have reputations that they enjoy, but very few have reputations that they don’t deserve. A reputation for being ‘boring, staid and conservative’ may reflect the core competence of the business model and provide attractive values that customers and other stakeholders are looking for. A change in the reputational platform, to one that is more ‘sexy’, may undermine a competitive position. As with individuals with aspirations, organisations have aspirations for their reputation, but these aspirations may be Fool’s Gold.
One organisation that has a very one dimensional view of their reputation is Ryanair. They don’t care what you think of them; except that they provide cheap flights. They are not interested in being liked, just having a reputation for providing cheap flights from A to B, even if B is 100 km from where you expect it to be!! They are a very successful, very profitable airline, and many of those airlines that spend time and money protecting their reputation are nowhere near as profitable as Ryanair.
Like Ryanair, Harry Redknapp is a very successful, a football manager who has been in the game a long time and been well rewarded for his success. It may be that he is being too precious of his reputation, a reputation that has served him well. He may be better accepting his reputation is well founded and realise it is part of his personal competitive advantage.
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As a final word, just in case you may think that Ryanair may take exception at the way they are presented in this blog then fear not. As they say themselves,
“ It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.
“Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel”.
COYS
Graeme Lindsay
Corporate Reputation Resource Centre 
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