Reputation is just like a relationship between 2 friends – it’s fragile. Your company start off with nothing, without anyone knowing who you are or what you do. It’s just like you meeting with another stranger. At your first meeting, you wouldn’t know who he is or what he does, and same goes to him. You need time to know each other, and to build the trust.

Same goes to your company. You need to spend a lot of time – months, years or maybe decades – to build up your company’s reputation or to make it at least more reputable than the other competitors. That is how you want people to know your company – with a good reputation. People will start to trust your company more, be it employees, potential employees, business partners or customers because you have a good reputation. Look at those Japanese companies such as Toyota, Honda and Docomo. They did not get their good reputation overnight. They’ve spent years and decades building it to the current level.

But a single drop of poison, will make the entire glass of drink undrinkable. A screwed up project once in a while is not that bad. It will ruin your reputation, definitely, but it’s not that bad YET. A series of mishaps, though, will prove to be devastating. It’ll give your company a very bad reputation. And believe it or not, it will only take you few months to ruin a good company reputation which has used decades to build.

Just look at those companies affected by the Melamine. Most of them have quite a good reputation before this, but now that this issue has been brought to the public, their reputation has been ruined. They CAN rebuild their reputation but it will not be a quick fix. It might take another few years or decades for them to do that.

Same thing goes to the company who does not appreciate their employees. Employees WILL leave if they feel they’re not being treated well or at least, fairly. And these employees WILL use their power to let other people know about this particular company. So don’t be so surprised when your company’s HR started to tell you that nobody wants to join your company due to your company’s bad reputation. Never underestimate the power of “word of mouth”. It’s another form of viral marketing at its best.

If you’re a small company..fine, you can always change your company name. But if you’re a multinational or a listed company, you better be very worried if your company’s reputation is not that good.

That’s why it’s always important to be careful of what you say or do – whether you’re an employee, a friend, a compay’s management team member or a boss. Keep a good reputation, and you will have people singing praises for you and your company. Keep a bad reputation, and you can bid your future farewell – at least, for the next few years.