To be quite honest here, I could not get into this book and I have never finished it. I forgot I even had it and that I needed to write a review. Cleaning off my bookshelves, I found it and wondered why on earth I had it... so I started looking at it again.
I am employed by a university and work in the business school there- I thought that this book would have the same sort of information that I am used to reading for my work (copy editing academic writing) but it is not that sort of book. Disappointingly so. I am not entirely sure who the audience for this book would be, it is a topic that few (if any) 'regular average folks' care about and it is not written in an authoritative academic style that business school faculty would find useful as a reference.
It seems more like the rantings of a fed-up PR person tired of her job as a 'spin artist'. I assume she is better at that then she is as an author. Kudos for trying. ( )

The author provides a lot of common sense about managing organizatonal reputations in business and government. Many brief examples of the kinds of ethical failures that can lead to bad news and bad reputations.

None of it is rocket science, but the value of the book is in the examples of just how much damage can be done to organizational reputations by what the organizations and their people do. ( )

"Your reputation is created at and affected by every touch point of the organization. Reputation management means addressing your organizational reputation as a strategic issue. It requires a whole-of-business approach to genuine corporate social responsibility and sustainability, and a culture of thinking beyond quarterly financial reports."

The quote above is the start of the epilogue to 140 pages of rivetting perspectives about and examples of the way organizations mis-manage reputation, the risks and consequences of such actions, and insights into best practice. Reading Reputation at Risk will leave you in no doubt about the clear link between business success and effective reputation management, and the umbellical cord that connects reputation and corporate social responsibility practices and reporting. Alex Harris, the author, was born in Papua New Guinea and now lives in Australia, so this book has a healthy helping of Australian stories and references, and a lively, provocative style which brings the Alex's passionate temperament to life for the reader.

Reputation at Risk provides a view of corporate governance and the lack thereof that caused the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), the role of business schools , the risks to reputation from CGM (consumer generated media (no, i didn't know what that meant either), crisis management and more. There is a checklist of positive corporate responses to a crisis or a serious issue and some good advice: "Too often, companies assume the crises will occur in normal working hours when all the key executives and trained operatives will be available. They rarely do". Alex promotes Corporate Social Responsibility as a key element of business, contributing to public image and reputation. She advocates that CSR should be part of the DNA of the business as csr influences a business's abilty to attract and retain skilled staff, maintain effective customer relationships and shareholder satisfaction and more. Reputation at Risk speaks in favour of corporate transparency and reporting - "The way companies communicate their CSR activities is just as important as the CSR itself".

Whilst Reputation at Risk is not classic text-book style writing (an advantage, in my view), it is certainly a book to learn from. I enjoyed it greatly and recommend it to those who are interesting in learning about Reputation Management and corporate communications and risk.

elaine cohen ( )

The style of writing may have been intended to lend an informal tone, but it completely turned me off the book. The narrative voice, the unfamiliar cultural references and overly brief use of detail meant that despite the lightweight nature I failed to finish this and have no desire to return. An occasionally entertaining commentary, but not what I was hoping for. ( )

This book is based on a blog and as such is structured as a series of blog entries. It aims to talk about how businesses should address risks to their reputations and offers some advice as well as discussing the dangers inherent in ignoring these risks. Generally the advice boils down to "don't be too short-termist" and "don't do really stupid things" which are both obvious (although often ignored by people and companies). I found the book did not particularly interest and lacked many insights that a person with a degree of common-sense could have come up with. This book could be a possible first look at the topic for someone who has never thought about these problems before but i would hesitate to recommend it. ( )