Book review: Reputation Management by Tony Langham

A book that provides a blueprint for modern reputation management. Buy it for your boss.

Reputation Management: The Future of Corporate Communication and Public Relations by Tony Langham is a guide to the importance of reputation for modern organisations.

The reputation of an organisation has a direct impact on recruitment, retention, productivity, sales, and financial performance. It is the sum of organisational behaviour, communication and public opinion.

Langham is the CEO of Lansons, a public relations firm he founded with Clare Parsons, his partner, in 1989.

Reputation Management was published in 2019 long before the COVID-19 crisis but it is nonetheless a timely book. Organisations focused purely on financial performance have been hit hard by the crisis.

Langham spotlights the importance of authenticity. He says that organisations which seek to build reputation and trust need to consider their impact on the environment and role within society. This is the shift from financial performance as the sole metric of performance to the triple bottom line.

If an organisation exists for no other reason than to generate profit, such as a bank, it should at least be honest about it, says Langham. He’s equally critical of purpose washing whereby good works are used as a marketing tactic.

Reputation Management sets out models and tools to measure and manage reputation from Langham’s own work at Lansons and organisations such as the Reputation Institute.

Langham tells stories from theory and practice, introducing essays, case studies and comment from more than 80 practitioners in 27 countries around the world. He invites fresh voices from arts, business, communication, culture, media and politics. Reputation Management is worth the cover price for these stories alone. You should buy a copy for your boss.

I’m grateful to Langham for reuniting Steve Earl and I. We contributed the final essay updating our book Brand Vandals in 2013, exploring the impact of social media on reputation.

Reputation Management is published by Emerald Publishing as part of a series of PRCA Practice Guides, priced £17.99.

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