Reputation Management
If a tree falls with no one to hear, does it make a sound? That was the situation at Bridgestone Americas, a global champion of the sustainability movement. Achieving more good than any of their category competitors, the Company was uneasy about drawing attention to themselves. We fixed that for them.
The Challenge
Many of Bridgestone’s CSR/environmental programs actually exceeded industry standards but the “dirty" nature of the industry made the Company uneasy about speaking up. When time came to share its positive news, Bridgestone struggled with what to say, when to say it, or whether to say anything at all. Their relative silence had a neutralizing and often negative impact on reputation.
At our point of entry, Bridgestone’s communication about sustainability successes was inconsistent. One national index cited the absence of publicly evident sustainability commitments when ranking Bridgestone's reputation 6068 out of 6074 companies. Our mission was to measure the existing corporate reputation and engineer a 360º communications plan that would convert Bridgestone’s exceptional sustainability efforts into consumer confidence and reputation success.
Our Approach
We embarked on a comprehensive Reputation Audit to measure the company’s public standing and develop strategic improvement plans. Our deep discovery involved:
Individual interviews of 22 C-suite and senior level managers across North America to gain executive perspectives on existing corporate strategies, omissions and achievements.
Online surveys of 3,500 teammates in 25 offices to measure workforce opinions on impact and improvement areas.
Assessment of ESG and Sustainability indexes such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, NASDAQ Global Sustainability Index, FTSE4Good, the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index and others by industry watchdogs.
Audits of past and current reputation management efforts, both internal and external, to identify missed opportunities and assessments, both high and low.
An ambitious comparison against industry competitors in 29 key attributes and four key performance areas.
Thorough audits of real and perceived threats to operational, regulatory and reputation success.
Our Results
Our three-month discovery culminated with a 57-page reputation benchmark, which informed Bridgestone’s first-ever strategy toward sustainability reputation. Defining and documenting Bridgestone’s leading and trailing positions enabled data-rich executive discussions and deliberate action toward improved consumer and media perceptions. Our resulting seven-point plan called for intentional reputation strategies, top-level leadership commitments, teammate collaborations and improved communication, increased disclosure/transparency, better aligned community partnerships, and overall better messaging.
Our engagement led to better corporate management of their sustainability reputation. As one example, Bridgestone, which skipped the world-leading Climate Disclosure Project (now called CDP) in 2003-2006 and 2008, began reporting consistently thereafter and reached the CDP’s Supplier Engagement Leaderboard with the highest supply chain engagement rating on climate issues in 2021. Through ongoing good works of dedicated teammates worldwide, Bridgestone ranks perennially high for sustainable operations.
