Managing Professional Services Communications:

Reputation, Brand and Leadership

December 6, 2007AMCF Global Consulting Leaders

SymposiumPeter Verrengia, President and Senior Partner

Communications Consulting Worldwide

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Challenge: Grow Value Everywhere . . .

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Against a background of global complexity. . .

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Priorities?

• Visibility for the firm– Global– National– Regional– Local

• Credibility for the practices and partners• Lead generation• Recruitment and retention

– Lateral, direct entry– Summer associates, associates

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Questions and Complexity• How should we be known, what should we say?

• Why do our competitors get more attention—does it matter?

• Should we focus on practices, geographies or at the firm level?

• How do we convert our experience into demand?

• Does criticism or a link to negative issues hurt our revenue now? Will it hurt in the future?

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More questions…• Can we increase productivity and quality if

employees understand our strategy better?

• Are we trusted, seen as innovative, expected to succeed? Is that view the same in every country and every service segment.

• Should our leaders be visible, should they be thought leaders? Is the time and personal exposure worthwhile?

• Shouldn’t our results speak for themselves?

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Challenges of Business Development Communications in Professional Services Firms

• Shared– Disintermediation of editorial function, decline

of endorsed expertise– Speed, fragmentation of information sources—

shift away from control– Desire for linearity in a non-linear decision-

making environment– Scope and scale of global business– Lack of confidence in large organizations,

personal credibility as a substitute

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Challenges of Business Development Communications in Professional Services Firms

• Unique– Partner time – Partner expectations

• (Unlike clients, partners are never wrong)

– Can’t easily use clients as examples in public communications

– Expertise versus personalities– Lead generation in a relationship context– Business strategy vs. marketing strategy vs.

partner priorities, reactions

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Variety Of Effective Tools

• Most programs involve the same tactics• Segmentation by practice, vertical industry, and

geography

Controlled

Uncontrolled

Advertising

Direct

Custom Publishin

gBooks, by-

lined Articles

Speeches, events, seminars

Media relations

Interactive engagement

VISIBILITY CREDIBILITY

Integrated Communications Program

Content Dependent

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Objective? Conflict?

Personality dependent

Super Fully

Integrated Strategic

Communications

Super Tactical, High

VolumeSplashy Buzz

Communications

If I could just get into the room…

Chaos?

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Organizations Must Tackle Communications Alignment and Integration Issues

• Organization: How does it connect inside?• Effectiveness, Efficiency: How well are reputation and

brand projected and protected? • Alignment: How well does the organization support its

own professionals and their objectives?• Benchmarks: Scope and spending on communications

activities and how does this compare to best in class?

CoordinationFunctional, Independent, Parallel

CollaborationTogether, Better, Faster

IntegrationNew, Innovative, Strategic

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2

3

Near-Term Initiative

Long-Term Opportunit

y

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Reputation and brand

• Brand: what we say about ourselves or our products – in the context of a buyer/seller relationship– Most often through controlled communications

• Reputation: What others say about the company– In the context of its own actions and statements– Statements of competitors, and the issues and concerns that create the

economic, public policy, and social trends environment – Wherever the company operates or plans to operate in the future. – Most often through uncontrolled communications

Brand Visibility Reputation Credibility

Credibility = Experience + Expectation

In professional services, brand and reputation are

very closely aligned

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Managing Reputation & Brand Value

OpportunityPlatform

SafetyNet

Value

Controlled

Communications

Uncontrolled

Communications

Performance

Reputation

and

Brand

Partners

Firm

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Brand, Reputation and Thought Leadership• The firm’s reputation

is a composite and reflection of its partners’ reputations—and potentially more– Institutional qualities,

attributes• Communications from

the firm requires the personal participation of the partners– Especially at the level of

thought leadership– “Live the brand”???

LEADERSHIPPositioning

DIFFERENTIATION

CREDIBILITY

VISIBILITY

same at any scale:

partner, practice geography, or firm

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Reputation and Branding Priorities

LEADERSHIPPositioning

DIFFERENTIATION

CREDIBILITY

VISIBILITY

For the Firm

For the Partner

PERSONAL CREDIBILITY

TIME FOR VISIBILITY

TIME FORTHOUGHT LEADERSHI

P

High Effort, High return

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Two rules

Thought Leadership:

Need a thought

Need to lead

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Essential Ingredients

New solutions, expanding opportunities, call to actionNot Just about the firm

Comment on current issues and events

Developments about the firm, office or practice

NEWS EXPERTISE

THOUGHTLEADERSHIP

Content is king in professional services communications

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How do we know what matters?• In an increasingly complex world, attributes

of our reputation, and what issues, are important?

• Do we have, in our reputation, a sustainable competitive advantage?– What attributes to emphasize?– What attributes to protect?

• How do we create and maintain visibility and credibility– Program messages, tactics, duration– Spending levels

• What are the metrics we should use?

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Practical Considerations

• Motivate partner participation• Respond to partner priorities and desires

(demands?)• Justify budgets

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Practical Considerations• Motivate partner

participation• Respond to partner

priorities and desires (demands?)

• Justify budgetsACCURATE

COMMUNICATIONS ECOLOGYANALYSIS

TRANSPARENT PRIORITIES, BUDGET& RESPONSIBILITY

CONSISTENTMESSAGE

PLATFORM

MEASUREMENTTIED TO BUSINESS

OUTCOMES

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MESSAGE & POSITIONING DEVELOPMENT

Program strategy & tactics

LEADERSHIP REPUTATION GROWTH AND DEFENSE

REPUTATION VALUEMEASUREMENT

ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN & PERFORMANCE

BD Comms.Management

This is the easy part

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Create Reputation Value Model

• What outcomes matter most to you as a business?

• What is the value of reputation overall? What metric should be used over time to measure progress or threats?

• Which reputation attributes or messages contribute most to your reputation, sales volume, other outcomes?

• Which should be emphasized more?

• Which reputation attributes or messages about the company should your protect?

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Management Strength

Corp. Culture and CEO

Messaging

Employee Relations

Brand Data

Stakeholder Survey Inputs

(Customer, Employee,

Other)

CSR Data

Media Relations

Data

Innovation

Possible Data Points:Inputs Intermediaries Outputs

Sales Volume/ Growth

Potential Business Outcomes:

Customer Retention

Market Share

Revenue

Components

Strategy Execution

Product/Service Quality

Awards, Patents, Ratings

Publicly Available

Financial Data

Marketing Data

Reputation

Financial Position

Possible Message Themes: Possible Elements:

CCW’s Approach to Measurement• An approach using multivariate statistics and econometric

modeling

• A model using causal equations to link intangible drivers to an overall score that links to corporate performance

Reputation

Index –Communicatio

ns, Brand, Image,Other

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Leadership Defense• Understand the environment and risks

– Cross-border political and economic issues– Relevance– Competitor initiatives– Timing—24 hours a day– Appropriate response

• Sometimes no response is correct• Create just enough leeway for initiative• Focus and repeat (consultants get bored

easily)• Measure• Involve knowledge owners• Always seek communications annuity

programs and develop franchises