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closeNew think tank to promote corporate reputation
Reputation & Reputational Risks
New think tank to promote corporate reputation
Largest spanish companies have joined together to professionalize the brand and reputation management globally
The major Spanish corporations have joined together to launch a centre of excellence named “Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership”, a think-tank to promote corporate brand and reputation management as a strategic driver to achieve business excellence. For that, Corporate Excellence will develop its activities in six areas: reputation, brand, communication, public affairs, metrics and training.
Among the founders of this new think-tank are BBVA, La Caixa, Iberdrola, Repsol, Santander and Telefónica. These companies represent 65% of the selective Spanish Index IBEX35 (250 million of euros in stock market capitalization). Also, relevant public and private corporations have joined this initiative including Adif, Agbar, Bankinter, Correos, Danone, El Corte Inglés, Gas Natural Fenosa, Meliá Hotels International and Renfe. This group of companies has more than 750.000 employees in 82 countries.
The Foundation was created with a threefold objective: to consolidate the management of brand and corporate reputation as strategic key driver to achieve business excellence, to introduce the role of the Chief Reputation Officer (CRO) to the companies executive organization chart and show the financial profitability of intangibles assets into financial results.
International benchmark
Under the tagline: "leading by reputation", Corporate Excellence-Centre for Reputation Leadership aspires to become a global point of reference of innovation, professionalism, technical and ethical rigor, focusing on helping companies to develop and manage their intangible assets and contribute to social development by raising the consideration of corporate governance in a long-term and encouraging a new relationship between corporations and social media.
Corporate Excellence- Centre for Reputation Leadership is the result of experience obtained over the last decade by the “Foro de Reputación Corporativa” (founded in 2002) and the “Instituto de Análisis de Intangibles” (founded in 2004), both now part of this new think-tank. The foundation is lead by Luis Abril, Chief Reputation Officer and General Technical Secretary for the Chairman´s Office and Chief Reputation Officer of Telefonica, and Ángel Alloza as CEO.
From its beginning, Corporate Excellence- Centre for Reputation Leadership will have an important international activity. To achieve it, this new think-tank will work through diverse alliances with the main institutions dedicated to the analysis and research of intangibles assets.
Ten years of experience
The internationalization process of the major Spanish Corporations early in the last decade, helped make aware to top executives the relevance of corporate reputation and strategic intangible assets.
In 2002, four large Spanish Corporations (Agbar, BBVA, Telefónica and Repsol) created the Foro de Reputación Corporativa (fRC) as a collaborative space to fill the gaps in management models and provide tools on corporate reputation and its contribution for the creation of corporate value. Ten years later, 15 large Spanish Corporations were members of the fRC.
The need to create a solid doctrine about the value of intangibles assets and its management, led the creation of the “Instituto de Análisis de Intangibles” in 2004, promoted by a group of companies, consultants, business schools and organizations. The IAI has developed a fruitful work in this field, attracting more than 45 partners to develop its projects.
Challenges and opportunities
In the current globalization context, where high competitiveness and expectations of consumers and stakeholders increase, corporations and institutions face the challenge of integrate the areas dedicated to manage their corporate affairs (corporate communication, brand management, institutional relations, shareholders relations, etc.) in order to present themselves with a coherent and consistent message that generates confidence and trust to their stakeholders.
Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership was created to professionalize the management of corporate reputation and intangible assets, thus contributing to the leadership of strong brands with good reputation and able to compete in global environments.
In this context, one of its main goals is to promote a new business function: the Chief Reputation Officer (CRO). “The excellence in communication, brand and reputation management is an opportunity for all that companies who bet to create inside the organization a new function able to integrate the management of all kind of communications and strategic intangibles”, says Luis Abril.
