CEO and Achillesheel of Business Author: Dr.

Pham Tri Hung Henry Ford once said: If you do not pay much attention to your company's reputation, your competitors do. Gradually replacing tangible assets, reputation became the most valuable asset of each company and it is the CEO, no other, is the key position who can "polish" or destroy that property.

According to the Free Management Library, the CEO detailed job descriptions form has emphasized duties of them in public relations and publics as "Make sure all operations, activities, programs, products and services of the company are presented with strong, positive image to stakeholders. " In Vietnam, the understanding that all business leaders, especially CEO clearly get their roles in reputation management and companys image elevation does not always work. 1. Reputation is the value of intangible assets of any enterprise Reputation must be understood as "name" and "fame", including companys name, prestige, and its rank. In the speech of awarding honors testimonial in 1999 at Harvard University, Alan Greenspan said: "In our current world, when the idea increasingly overshadow matter in creating economic values, the competition for reputation has become an inevitable driving force to promote our economy move ahead ". It should be well seen that the trend for value of tangible assets is gradually leaving its leading position in favor of the intangible assets. Accompanying with brand name, for some companies, reputation is considered as their most important value on markets. Coca Cola, Microsoft or Yahoo are some typical examples of companies that of the brand and reputation make up for 80-90%. As people may have heard about scandals almost daily, they equate reputation with corporate social responsibilities and ethical behaviors of businesses. In Vietnam, when being condemned for discharging untreated waste water into Thi Vai River, Vedan still retains brand but loses its reputation. 2. CEO and corporate reputation

There are many factors to make up reputation of a business such as outcomes, working environment, quality of products and services, etc, among which managing capability and vision of CEO and leaderships ....play an important role. In particular, it is the personal reputation of CEO that has no little impact on corporate reputation. It is assured that a scandalous CEO will not sit long in his term of office in this tension, while behaviors of celebrities as Bill Gates of Microsoft or Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com embellish images of their companies. A survey conducted by Burson-Marsteller has revealed that the majority of respondents are business executives, financial analysts, investors, members of board of management, business press and Government officers all claimed that reputation of CEO is worth half of company's reputation. Not only is CEO the best spokesman of any enterprise, but is the embodiment of brand and linkman of the past, present and future of the company as well. In countries around the world, the board of managements increasingly focus on reputation management skills when employing a new CEO. In addition, reputation is also becoming a key factor to evaluate performance and one of the important criteria to praise CEO. 3. Reputation management and companys image elevation. CEO and business leaders can easily recognize reputation management should include two elements, namely: creation and consolidation, while showing timely actions in crisis situations. It is a guideline, a detailed plan to respond quickly in crisis situations that have an important say over a companys reputation. Firstly, this allows to prevent the spread of adverse information on media; secondly, it creates an opportunity to show the companys availability in resolving arising issues. Box 1 Box 1 In Moscow, in February 2004, a part of Metro Cash & Carry stores garage roof suddenly collapsed. The company responded immediately without delay: promise

to compensate for damaged vehicles, check safety of the whole roofs on all garage's Metro chain, stop rumors about human damages. It can be strongly determined that timely responses to these troubles not only do not harm reputation but also demonstrates openness and sense of responsibility of the company. The recipe that big corporations adopt to build and strengthen their reputation can be worth several million dollars (if not more expensive) and not all companies feel free to do that. However, huge cost does not cause less attention paid to their image and reputation.

To build reputation, a company must always present itself as a serious, honest business and a reliable partner. The company cares much about its customers, shareholders, capital contributors and employees, etc, that means to create ethics-based relationship among individuals. Companies should actively participate in events such as exhibitions, seminars, conferences, emulation, or act as members of professional organizations because if they fail to recommend or advertise anything about themselves, their reputation will meet difficulty to be recognized better.

CEO and company leaderships should not refuse to meet and communicate with the press. It proves of great benefit when their comments or judges on various economic issues are widely published on media.