Power Talk │ February 2021│Ready to Startup

Business is all
about relationships.
How well you build
them, determines
how well they build
your business
- Brad Sugars
Reputation is not built by what we tell our
consumers, but by what our stakeholders tell
each other. In that sense, it is intangible and is a
function of the actions and behaviour of the
company within and without.
As the new age mediums of communication
become our normal, one must take cognizance of
the fact, that stories no longer have a definitive
shelf life; or are restricted by geographies or
limited to only qualified journalists or publishers.
Stories can be told by anyone, re-emerge multiple
times and be tagged and associated directly or
indirectly to any number of themes. The digital
medium has vested powers in the hands of many
stakeholders beyond the customer, who drive
perception and thus our reputation.
Reputation management will increasingly have a
direct correlation to business, which must be
startegistically capitalised. Additionally
anticipating and planning for risks and crisis must
be integral to any reputation strategy.
Let’s use 3 philosophical questions which come
up more often than not, to set the context to this
conversation on reputation management.
The 1 st question asked is:
How did you come up with this idea?
I like this question. It is an opportunity to tell your
story with things material to you and own your
reputation. There are so many pegs around which
the story of any start-up can be written. Decide on
the ‘Hero’ of your enterprise – is it you, the
product, the company, all of it or something else.
Craft . the narrative you want everyone to carry
The 2 nd big question asked is:
Who are your stakeholders or audience?
Take a strategic, structured and timely approach to
map, know and communicate with your
stakeholders. I like to group stakeholders as ABC:
Allies Actively engaged with you
Bystanders Believe in you with a But
Critics Hold views contradictory to yours
Having said that, also remember that the stakeholder
universe is agile today. We may not always be able to
map our stakeholders to the tee. Reviewing your
stakeholder base at regular intervals will keep you on
your game in including and engaging with them .The
above two questions is what most start-ups get
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