Can you put a value on a reputation?
A reputation isn’t like a product that you can immediately put a value to. It’s not like apples and pears or even widgets that have a price fixed within a scale largely determined by the market.
It’s reassuring to note that since UK PLC’s Board Rooms finally took notice of the value of a reputation in the early 1990’s the benefits of actively protecting and enhancing a company’s reputation have become much better understood throughout the business world. Which could mean your competitors are already ahead, nurturing their reputation and making sure people value their products and services over and above yours.
There are ways of putting a value on a company’s reputation, and the big brands spend millions every year trying to justify their marketing spend. But gut instinct also plays a part in whether we consider a company’s got a good and growing reputation or a poor and fragile one.
Successful business is built partly on doing what you think is right, and when it comes to measuring reputation, the successful business knows instinctively that the value of a good reputation is always worth more than the fees it costs to maintain it.
But I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Eugene Baston
Credentials
When you’re tasked with looking after someone else’s hard won reputation it pays to look after your own reputation too. Eugene Baston knows this, and that’s why he’s been highly successful in his career so far, acting with integrity, sincerity and a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the growing world of public relations and reputation management.
Three solid years in public relations consultancy taught Eugene a lot about promoting products and services through the media, and it also gave him an invaluable insight into one side of the client/supplier relationship. His two and half years with one of the top ten business to business PR agencies of its time meant that he was regularly managing activity on behalf of blue chip clients, working with the nationals and trade media titles in a sphere of public relations that many consider the hardest nut to crack – persuading smart business people to buy from other smart business people.
The last nine years have seen Eugene relish a succession of promotions into a position of senior management within British Waterways (BW), as the company’s External Relations Manager. Responsible for building and protecting BW’s reputation across a very varied range of company activities, Eugene’s work has appeared in many national newspapers, across the BBC & ITV (national radio & TV, regional versions & online media), leisure and lifestyle magazines and trade publications, along with regional and local newspaper titles ‘sweeping up the rest’.
Eugene’s combined his top class media and public relations skills with extensive work in parliamentary and political circles during this time, helping the public corporation with a turnover of £190m+ put the case at the highest levels of Government for greater security for the UK’s 2,200-mile waterway network. Proving again and again to have excellent contacts and an uncanny knack for influencing even the most doubtful of possible supporters, Eugene’s success has delivered significant benefits to the historic waterways network both now and for the future.
He’s well known for being a good bloke to be around when something goes spectacularly wrong too! The best reputation management in the world can’t foresee when something will go wrong, but it can certainly help to protect a reputation that may be under threat in very unpleasant circumstances. Eugene’s various hands-on experiences coupled with his natural flair, high energy levels and broad perspectives brought to any urgent issue means he’s an invaluable aide when it comes to repairing a damaged reputation.
Whether there’s a need to influence one person, a hundred people or even an audience of millions, Eugene’s fantastic set of skills allows him to choose the right path for the right message to be communicated at the right time on your behalf.
