Reputation Matters: Build Your Brand, Don't Break It

When you have a solid product and a great reputation it attracts customers, it attracts talent, it engenders trust, and most importantly, both customers and employees will go to bat for the company. It's much easier to grow market share when you're well-liked.

When your brand has a good reputation, people naturally want to join. After all, they've heard good things - the mission, the people, interesting work, and the culture. They've read positive employee reviews, the word of mouth is strong and people stay at the company a long time. Those are all very attractive to talent and screams that it might be a place I want to be part of.

when a company has a bad reputation, it can repel talent. People won't apply and the great product you're developing is more difficult to launch due to the negative perception of the company because you don't have the people needed to build it. Furthermore, if the reputation is really bad, employees will leave faster than you can hire them. That's a real cost on a number of levels -- the resources it costs to advertise roles, the people hours to recruit, interview, hire, and onboard.

One of the most key aspects of brand reputation is consistently saying and more importantly, doing the right things. A lot of companies say one thing but do another.

When companies operate in a way that is contrary to their stated values, they greatly risk diminishing their brand reputation. It's incumbent on companies, particularly leaders to model and help safeguard against situations that can hurt the brand. 

Reputation is easily lost and can have an epic domino effect, because once you lose the trust of your employees, your customers and your stockholders, it can be a long way back to redemption, if at all. So do things differently, continually build a great reputation and don't lose your way.