PRCA Practice Guides – serie

A good reputation is vital to success in business and in life. Organisations with the best reputations outperform rivals in a myriad of tangible ways; they recruit higher quality staff, succeed with smaller marketing budgets, and exert greater influence over Governments. Although in the long term reputation is based on reality and behaviour, short term examples of organisations and individuals building unfair advantage can be seen all around us. Despite this, reputation remains an often misunderstood and neglected asset. In Reputation Management: The Future of Corporate Communications and Public Relations, Tony Langham argues that reputation management is the future incarnation of public relations and corporate communications. Featuring specially commissioned essays, as well as exclusive interviews with leading CEOs, influencers and celebrities, the book covers issues as diverse as fake news, AI, James Bond, cyber security and internet bullying. Also included are contributions from thirty-nine of the world’s leading reputation managers who exclusively reveal the time they made the most difference to an organisation’s reputation. Reputation Management provides a complete blueprint and toolkit for reputation management and is essential reading for CEOs, Board Directors and shareholders in businesses who ultimately bear the responsibility and costs of reputation management. It will also prove indispensable to all professionals and students working in or studying business, marketing, corporate communications and public relations.

Can you control a crisis? No – but with adequate preparation you can control the reputational consequences. Reputational damage is rarely caused by the crisis itself but, instead, by what the organisation does and says under the media spotlight. This PRCA Practice Guide describes how to invest in readiness and what to do when a crisis strikes. Coverage includes contingency planning, stakeholder identification, crisis communications policy, spokesperson training, the ‘Red Book’, dark sites, rehearsals and simulations, locations and resources, taking the initiative, and managing the aftermath. The book also covers in detail the role of the mainstream and online media, recommending steps to neutralise hostility and shut down ill-informed comment. Including numerous real-life examples, discussion topics and advice from PR experts, journalists and editors, Crisis Communications Management is intended as an essential guide for public relations professionals, and the people who work with them during a crisis, on how to navigate the turmoil and emerge from a crisis with reputation and credibility intact.