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Being Visible
By Michael Alan Hamlin
December 06, 2004
About 50 percent of a corporation's
reputation is attributable to the reputation of its CEO, according
to Nicholas Varchaver, writing recently in Fortune magazine. Varchaver
was citing the results of surveys conducted by Burson-Marsteller,
a very large, global PR firm. While Burson-Marsteller's self-interest
- and mine and my firm's - is well served by these results, there
are good reasons to take them to heart.
Tomorrow, I'll be speaking all day
on the contribution of strong personal brands to corporate brands,
and the goodwill they generate. The seminar is based on work Irving
Rein, Philip Kotler, Martin Stoller and I are doing for a revised
edition of the book, High Visibility. Rein, Kotler, and Stoller,
all well-known professors at Northwestern University, are the original
authors of the book.
Aside from the contribution of CEO
reputation to corporate reputation, there are a number of other
good reasons professionals should be concerned about their personal
visibility. Here are some of them.
First, strong personal brands distinguish
executives from the crowd, something that's especially important
when many executives find themselves searching in vain for an interesting,
well-paying job, and many others are out building powerful personal
brands that will make them among the most attractive candidates
for the most attractive jobs. While most people may still be invisible,
more and more aren't. While you may be very talented and smart,
so are a lot of other people. Where does that leave you? The difference
in whether the next opportunity comes to you or someone else may
be your degree of visibility.
Second, if one celebrity brand can
help an organization stand out from its competitors, why not have
more than one? Indeed, strong celebrity brands throughout an organization
help distinguish it in important ways from competitors in an increasingly
competitive environment. That's never been truer than today, when
soft assets - people - determine who and what an organization is.
Business schools seek to distinguish themselves by attracting high-flying
faculty to head departments; news organizations want the most popular
reporters to report their news; and, banks want the best networked
executives to rein in those big corporate loans.
Third, increased scrutiny of CEOs
and other executives has made it critically important to craft an
image that is relevant to all stakeholders, able to withstand harsh
examination, and capable of enduring dramatic shifts in the way
constituents see organizations and the people that run them. CEOs
who run from the spotlight in the aftermath of highly publicized
corporate scandals are missing a great opportunity to step into
the vacuum. Despite a spate of CEO-focused scandals, a fundamental
characteristic of the most enduring brands remains an association
with a highly visible chief executive.
Now, it's important to acknowledge
here work by others, notably Jim Collins, author of the best-selling
Good to Great, who argue that organizations may actually do better
without a domineering, charismatic executive. My co-authors and
I have no argument with that notion. Truly effective executives
are both visible within the constituencies they need to be (such
as shareholders, investment bankers, and major customers), and their
visibility is balanced by the substance of their leadership.
Fourth - and one of the reasons strong
corporate brands are in part a product of strong CEO brands - a
strong personal brand that is associated with attributes like trust,
integrity, quality, innovation, and substance often insulates the
professional and his or her organization from the negative impact
of rumors, unavoidable accidents, or the actions of rogue employees.
A strong personal brand also instills employee, shareholder, and
customer confidence when a respected professional takes over a troubled
organization.
Fifth, and this represents truly
strategic thinking in a very personal sense, because people are
living longer, they're "in the saddle" longer. How rewarding
life and career is can be determined by how relevant the professional's
image is, regardless of age. To be enduringly relevant, the executive
brand must continue developing throughout the executive's career.
While the essential qualities of the brand should ideally remain
constant through time and career shifts, how those qualities are
communicated will change.
The new edition of High Visibility
won't be available until the middle of next year. But if you'd like
to learn more about how the world's leading executives, doctors,
lawyers, bankers, and other professionals leverage high visibility
to generate highly rewarding opportunities for their organizations
and themselves, join us tomorrow. For details, e-mail Ingrid Carlos
at ipcarlos@teamasia.com.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing director
of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on Asian economies
and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian Places,
of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and he is currently
at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Asian
Professionals into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2004 Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights
Reserved.
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