As those of you who follow Vanno know, we try and track all the non-financial aspects of company reputation - how companies treat their customers, employees, communities, the environment and society in general. How – or even whether – this correlates to financial performance is a profoundly important question at many levels.
In this post, we’ll take a look at the 2009 Business Week 50 - a sample of companies that is clearly on the leading edge of the financial performance distribution. The Business Week criteria cover such well-known financial metrics as profitability, sales growth and total returns over one and three year periods, and the 2009 list includes household names as well as lesser-known cogs in the industrial machine. But how do these companies fare when it comes to things like job satisfaction, customer service, product safety and origin, human rights, corporate governance, charitable giving, diversity, sustainability and clean energy?
Continue reading ‘Reputation vs. financial performance – a look at the 2009 Business Week 50′
If my undergrad alma mater Siena had upset Louisville, I’d be too busy arguing with NCAA basketball tournament predictions on a dozen or so sports sites to worry about the 2009 Consumerist Worst Company in America competition. But when the biggest Sweet 16 underdog is a school that’s won ten Pac-10 championships, my interest is seriously compromised. So here’s my take – or more precisely, the take of our users here at Vanno – on round 1 of the 2009 Consumerist Worst Company in America competition. The winners (actually, losers) are in red with their rankings as of 24 March 2009. Continue reading ‘Vanno predicts Round 1 of the Consumerist 2009 Worst Company in America bracket’
We’ve been systematically watching the shoes fall at AIG, thanks to our users’ passionate stories, votes and comments. Our last post looked at AIG relative to a number of Vanno reputation bottom-dwellers, and we wondered when AIG was going to join them. Well, it’s happened, so we thought we’d document the decline and correlate it to the events of the last six months.
Continue reading ‘Yes. AIG now has the worst reputation in the world.’
The short answer, according to Vanno users, is not yet. But the company could be well on its way, given the recent flood of outrage over their redistribution of bailout money to foreign banks and a number of their own executives.
If AIG doesn’t have the worst reputation, then who does? We don’t know about the entire world, but from the 5800 companies that Vanno users have reported on, here are the overall rankings for some of the more notable bottom-dwellers, along with their reputation trends over the last six months. Continue reading ‘Does AIG have the worst reputation in the world?’
Here’s an interesting study in contrasts. Kellogg still hasn’t decided - or figured out how – to participate in the online chatter about the damage done to its reputation by the now infamous series of events involving peanut butter, pot and Pop-Tarts. Procter & Gamble, on the other hand, has shown admirable initiative in attempting to engage online communities. Continue reading ‘Big Brands and Social Media – Procter & Gamble jumps in where Kellogg fears to tread’
We give our money to all sorts of companies, but we only expect to get it back (hopefully with a little gain) from the likes of banks, investment firms and insurance companies. But expecting to get our money back and trusting that we actually will are – as we’ve seen recently – two very different things. So what banks, investment firms and insurance companies should we trust?
Continue reading ‘Whom can we trust with our money?’
With heated debates about swimmers, branding, subs, pot and reputations, it’s been an exciting month here at Vanno. There’s been a surge of community activity this month, so this user spotlight really should be for everyone who’s been an active member of Vanno. I’d also like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to comment- especially when the Yes/No votes are tight. Others want to see your perspective and hear a new point of view, so drop a comment line and tell us what you’re thinking!
Without further adieu, I’d like to turn the spotlight on this month’s featured user: doranka. doranka has not only submitted some great stories, but he’s been an avid commenter, often asking questions and encouraging other users to leave comments in response to his. This is our favorite type of user because it keeps the conversation moving.
doranka also posted a unique story contest that won some Vanno users free subs. I missed the boat on my Turkey Avocado, but serves me right for being a week behind on a million sub giveaway. He also submitted a great find on WalMart CEO stating, “We are Not Green” and that they have no clue about how to reach their sustainability goals.
So that’s doranka- he’s a rockstar. For more on his comments and stories, check our doranka’s profile and his activity summary. Give him a follow, show him some love! Thanks to everyone for your comments, votes and stories. Keep up the great work!
We have another nice feature to announce this week: We’ve released our ReputationCheck tools for bloggers and websites. You can see one of these widgets in action right here on our blog sidebar - just put in a company name, pick an aspect of reputation, and you get a real-time snapshot of the company’s rank, along with the top 5 and bottom 5 comparables. Another version of ReputationCheck lets you embed a real time company snapshot anywhere in your blog itself. You can read more about ReputationCheck in our press release, and in the coverage we’ve gotten from CNBC, TechCrunch and BNET.
If you’re chomping at the bit to put ReputationCheck up on your site or blog, just go here for simple instructions and the code you need. If you do decide to give your users this cool new toy to play with, let us know and we’ll put you in our list of honored ReputationCheck partners that we’ll be announcing soon.
In response to popular demand, we’ve added a feature that let’s you share a little more about yourself on your Vanno profile. Just click on the new “Change Bio” link on the left side of your profile page, and you’ll see places to put in your name, your homepage or blog, and your location. There’s also a free-form Bio box, where you can tell others as much or as little about yourself as you want.
So, if you’ve wanted to tell the Vanno community more about yourself, and to know more about the people whose stories and comments you read, this feature’s for you!
