Reputation is an Outcome of Repetition 

You can't buy a good reputation; you must earn it. ~Harvey Mackay  

When we repeatedly do things right, we build a good reputation, and when we repeatedly do things wrong, we build a bad reputation. Reputation is therefore a cumulative account of our consistent efforts in delivering results. So, it is a time taking process and we must be patient and enduring. Like the saying goes, “Rome was not built in a day”.  Reputation is a big asset to anyone, because it is hard earned, over a long period of time.

 

Let ‘s look into a few examples - A singer who gives several hits, becomes a reputed singer in the entertainment industry. A Sports man, who has consistently performed well in the matches, earns the reputation of a promising player. A businessman, who consistently delivers quality products on time, starts to enjoy the credibility of a dependable supplier.  A Doctor, who has a higher success rate in healing patients, gets noticed and becomes the most sought-after doctor in the town.

 

Word of mouth referral is the strongest form of marketing, and it can skyrocket a person to great heights.

  

Just like Individuals build reputation, countries and companies too, build reputation over the course of time. It all attributes to the same cause of consistency in performance.

 

For example, Germany enjoys a reputation for precision engineering, Japan enjoys a reputation for product re-engineering, China enjoys a reputation for its low cost of production, , Finland for the best educational system in the world, US enjoys a reputation as the best marketeers and India enjoys a reputation of being the most competent outsourcing hub, for the rest of the world.

 

In the Corporate world, Brand building is nothing but a reputation building activity. When you are consistent in delivering what you promise, your reputation grows, and your brand becomes recognized. The value of building a brand is immense. The brand starts to sell by itself, with minimal effort. People start to trust a brand so much, that they are not willing to try out any other alternatives. All that the brand has to do, is to ensure they remain consistent in offering the same quality of product or service, that the customer likes.

 

 

Ironically, building reputation is also like building a glass tower. You are catching the eyes of so many people and therefore attract Envy. What attracts admiration attracts envy too. When this phenomenon happens, people are keenly looking for opportunities to find fault and even one mistake will be exaggerated and blown out of proportion to damage your reputation.

We have seen this happening in the Corporate world too. Trust issues based on allegations such as worm found in Cadbury milk chocolate, Zinc content found in Maggie Noodles and so on. All these took the company for a toss, and it took a lot of time and effort to set it right. While few of them survived the chaos and came back, many have become extinct and gone out of the market, because the customers weren’t willing to give them a second chance.

 

So, can someone who has built a bad reputation in the past, set it right? Yes, it is possible, but takes double the effort and it may take longer.  This needs a lot of conscious effort and hard work. First the person must erase the old image, before he can create a new image about himself. Few ways, by which they can do that is by being sincerely apologetic for what happened in the past, giving assurance of what others can expect from them in the future and follow it without a single default, for a considerable amount of time, that it alters the people's perception and existing mindset, about them.

There is a nice quote by Warren Buffet which goes "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it." So, we need to tread with ultimate caution. Whether you are a professional or businessman, be sure to build and guard your reputation fiercely, because once it is lost, it is difficult to start over again.

 

 D. Senthil Kannan,

 CEO, PALMS Training & Consulting (P) Ltd., Tuticorin.

 Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

 Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com