CEOs Concerned About Threats to Their Corporate Reputation

CEOs Concerned About Threats to Their Corporate Reputation:

AccountingWEB.com - November 14, 2003 - In a new national study of nearly 200 American chief executive officers, 81% expressed concern over threats to their corporate reputations, citing customer service problems, financial irregularity, negative press coverage and employee misconduct as among the issues that have the greatest potential to damage their corporate reputation.

'The clear message today is that CEOs live in a fishbowl,' noted Christopher Komisarjevsky, president and chief executive officer, Burson-Marsteller worldwide. 'A demanding regulatory environment, board members who are deeply engaged and the public's call for unimpeachable leadership have resulted in new pressures on CEOs. With these escalating demands on CEOs, this new wave of research demonstrates CEOs' greater respect for communications professionals and the priority they place on good internal and external communications.'

While an overwhelming majority of the CEOs surveyed (87%) cited 'improved employee morale and recruitment' as the area most positively impacted by a good rating on the corporate reputation scorecards, the majority (54%) admitted that their companies did not closely monitor these annual rankings compared to 46% that said they did."