When should a startup start building its reputation?
Sooner than you might think!
When I think about corporate reputation, the word that most frequently comes to my mind is “scandal.” I think about business snafus or times when CEOs’ reputations almost led to the downfall of their companies. If you’re like me and don’t keep up with celebrity gossip, reading about corporate scandals is like picking up the latest issue of People magazine (though I know my professor Allison would disagree — a true People fan, if I’ve ever met one).
On April 12, Nick Maschari, SVP at Mission North, had me thinking about corporate reputation in a new way. Instead of focusing solely on the times that businesses suffered from their bad reputations, we discussed the importance of businesses proactively shaping their reputations.
As someone who plans to join a startup this summer, I reflected on this idea of proactive reputation building. Should I be applying the concepts I learn in this class to proactively shape the startup’s reputation? While this question had an easy answer — yes! — beneath it sits a more complicated question. What is the tradeoff between allocating resources to build your reputation proactively versus allocating resources to answer key business questions?
It’s hard to imagine prioritizing your media strategy when you’re not entirely sure what your business model should be.
I caught up with Nick after the class to ask him these questions. His answer: shaping your reputation looks different at every stage. And, as he mentioned in his lecture, you have to think about your target audience. Whose perception of your reputation are you trying to influence?
This last question helped me realize that some elements of building a reputation can’t wait until your company is “big enough.” Especially in its early days, a startup might need to build a trustworthy reputation to earn a social license. Or it might need to communicate its values to build a customer base. Even if there are parts of building a reputation that feel separate from your core business (maybe you don’t need six social media accounts on day zero for a B2B company), building your reputation in small ways can be fundamental to business success. After all, don’t investors prefer companies with positive reputations, regardless of their size?
While it can be hard to allocate resources to reputation in a company’s early days, doing so can be critical to longer term business success. Thanks to Nick for helping me learn this important lesson!
