Reputation winners and losers in 2007

On the eve of 2008, a review of the main reputation winners and losers in 2007 isn’t taxing.

Stand-out winners were historic rape complainant Louise Nicholas and Detective Superintendent Nick Perry who headed the Operation Austin investigation into several historic rape allegations.

Reputation losers in these cases? Well, former Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards’ apparently stellar career ground to a halt when he resigned just weeks away from facing internal disciplinary proceedings. If he or his supporters ever felt he may be in line for a mention in a New Years Honours list at some point the light went out on that in 2007. Former police officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum will welcome 2008 with fellow inmates detained at her Majesty’s pleasure. Former Detective Inspector John Dewer will also have plenty of time to reflect on his jail sentence for attempting to obstruct or defeat the course of justice in relation to Nicholas’s allegations.

The Police Force itself goes into 2008 as a reputation winner – just – having copped significant criticism for its failure to set and monitor standards of behaviour earlier in the year. As the Editorial in the New Zealand noted earlier this month

“Public confidence, once eroded, is difficult to reclaim. Recovery is not impossible, however. Unstinting effort to the highest standard provides a strong foundation for rebuilding a reputation. The police have made a good start.”

Other New Zealand reputation winners and losers in 2007? Contenders on the ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you’ list include Rod Petricevic of Bridgecorp (will he ever work in the finance sector again?), tarnished League ‘star’ Brent Todd (yep, must be tough at Andrew’s place) and the marketing and promotions team for Ribena at GlaxoSmithKline.

Contenders for the red-carpet treatment include the writers and performers of TV’s ‘Outrageous Fortune’ who won national and international fans, world-champion shot-putter Valerie Vili (who proved we can win at sport) and Telcom’s new CEO, Paul Reynolds, whose upbeat, ‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing’ style caught our attention (time will tell though, as actions speak louder than words.)

Two sectors that will find it particularly tough in terms of reputation in 2008 are the real estate industry and the non-bank lending industry. An interesting thought given that large numbers of New Zealanders no doubt view property investment as more secure than ever given the losses incurred by thousands who invested with Bridgecorp, Geneva Finance, Five Star Finance, Capital & Merchant and other finance companies that failed this year.

There are never any guarantees with investments but this year proved particularly painful for many investors one way or another. Perhaps we’ll ask a few more questions and do a little more due diligence in 2008 before trusting others with our hard-earned cash. And perhaps individuals and companies across a wide range of sectors and industries will demonstrate more integrity and earn the trust that’s placed in them. Perhaps.