Testimonials, or endorsements, are arguably one of the most powerful promotional tools we can have in our armoury, especially since recommendations are around eight times more powerful than anything we can say about ourselves.

When all other things appear to be equal, or at least largely similar, positive support from an independent third party can swing the odds in our favour. When a prospective employer offers a position to their preferred candidate they usually do so ‘subject to references’. Whilst we accept what the person themselves says, we look for independent comment to support their application.

The same is true for businesses. Feedback and testimonials from past clients are often sought when trying to decide which provider to choose. The one that has most positive, current testimonials will often be the one that’s selected. Read the rest of this entry »

In Reputationz News each month I highlight what I consider to be recent reputation winners and losers. They can be people, companies or even abstract ideas. Some are fairly obvious. Others are off-beat or quirky. You may or may not agree! The lists are purely my opinion.

Check out the lists below for my pick of recent reputation winners and losers and feel free to leave a comment with nominations for the next issue if you think someone or something should be included.

Reputation Winners

US company Terrafugia for developing a folding car-plane that will allow commuters with both a driver’s and pilot’s licence to take to the skies when it enters production next year.

NZ company Booktrack for developing movie-quality background music for ebooks that’s attracted interest from global publishers. Read the rest of this entry »

In Reputationz News each month I highlight what I consider to be recent reputation winners and losers. They can be people, companies or even abstract ideas. Some are fairly obvious. Others are off-beat or quirky. You may or may not agree! The lists are purely my opinion.

Check out the lists below for my pick of recent reputation winners and losers and feel free to leave a comment with nominations for the next issue if you think someone or something should be included.

Reputation Winners:

John Lewis department store’s Christmas ad. for challenging viewers’ perceptions and judgements in a heartwarming way whilst brilliantly underscoring the ad’s key message. Enjoy!

‘This Is Why I’m Broke‘ website for providing a seemingly endless range of innovative, quirky and just plain ‘out-there’ products designed to part rational, reasonable people from their money! Read the rest of this entry »

In Reputationz News each month I highlight what I consider to be recent reputation winners and losers. They can be people, companies or even abstract ideas. Some are fairly obvious. Others are off-beat or quirky. You may or may not agree! The lists are purely my opinion.

Check out the lists below for my pick of recent reputation winners and losers and feel free to leave a comment with nominations for the next issue if you think someone or something should be included.

Reputation Winners

• Australian legislation for promising to give investors in ASX-listed companies the power to force re-election of an entire board if investors believe executive pay is inappropriate two years in a row.

• Air New Zealand for continuing to provide scheduled flights and ensure passenger safely despite volcanic ash clouds that grounded flights by Quantas, Jetstar, Pacific Blue and Virgin.

• St Pancras railway station for supporting bands and musicans wanting to get their music across to thousands of passengers during lunchtime and rush-hour ‘Rock ‘n’ Rail‘ jam sessions.

Reputation Losers

• EMA (Northern) CEO Alasdair Thompson for spectacularly forgetting that the camera is always rolling, the microphone is always on and there’s no such thing as ‘off the record’ when discussing reasons for women’s sick leave.

• Celebrity endorsements of financial products and companies in New Zealand following proposed legislation to make endorsers liable for claims made and face fines of up to $1 million.

• Diving and snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef following a tourist being left behind by a dive boat operator in similar vein to previous tourists, some of whom made it to safety, some of whom didn’t.

Who or what do you think should be listed? Leave a comment to let me know. Click the link to view Reputationz News online.

Many of us will have experienced a time when we consciously caught ourselves thinking ‘I shouldn’t be saying this’. As the words left our lips we wished we could take them back and rephrase them in a more context-appropriate way.

In our increasingly busy lives our mouths often operate faster than our brains. So it’s worth thinking about the impact of what we might say before we need say it so we can minimise the risk of saying something we’ll probably regret. Thinking before we speak is a quick, easy and cost-free way that can preserve, or enhance a reputation rather than damage it. Be aware:

Your role matters – Even if you explicitly state your comments are your personal views and not those of your professional role, or the organisation you represent, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to totally separate the two. At the very least listeners will question your judgement and suitability for the role if you comments seem at odds in any way with your professional role. Read the rest of this entry »

In Reputationz News each month I highlight what I consider to be recent reputation winners and losers. They can be people, companies or even abstract ideas. Some are fairly obvious. Others are off-beat or quirky. You may or may not agree! The lists are purely my opinion.

Check out the lists below for my pick of recent reputation winners and losers and feel free to leave a comment with nominations for the next issue if you think someone or something should be included.

Reputation Winners

• The Kiwi owners of Farmers Trading Company for purchasing almost all of the Whitcoulls and Borders bookshops currently in receivership in New Zealand with a view to making the chains financially viable again.

• Christchurch inventor Glenn Martin for bringing his James Bond style personal jetpack one-step closer to commercial reality with a 5,000 foot flight that has military, search and rescue and commercial investors abuzz.

• The surgeons who undertook the first full face transplant in the US that gave Dallas Wiens the opportunity to have facial features again following an electrical accident that disfigured his face. Read the rest of this entry »

In Reputationz News each month I highlight what I consider to be recent reputation winners and losers. They can be people, companies or even abstract ideas. Some are fairly obvious. Others are off-beat or quirky. You may or may not agree! The lists are purely my opinion.

Check out the lists below for my pick of recent reputation winners and losers and feel free to leave a comment with nominations for the next issue if you think someone or something should be included.

Reputation Winners

• Woodworker Steve Gass, for potentially stopping 10 people a day losing fingers in circular-saw accidents by inventing a table-saw that can tell the difference between fingers and wood. This 5-minute video is a must-watch!

• Bank Of New Zealand, for updating its ATM cash machine network with technology that can predict issues that might put them out of action and remotely organise pre-emptive servicing.

• The person who generously shared how to draw an anatomically correct face in just two and a half minutes. There’s hope for non-artists like me yet! Read the rest of this entry »

In Reputationz News each month I highlight what I consider to be recent reputation winners and losers. They can be people, companies or even abstract ideas. Some are fairly obvious. Others are off-beat or quirky. You may or may not agree! The lists are purely my opinion.

Check out the lists below for my pick of recent reputation winners and losers and feel free to leave a comment with nominations for the next issue if you think someone or something should be included.

Reputation Winners

• Dutch company Vanku for inventing the road-wide Tiger Stone paving machine that takes the back-breaking work out of laying individual pavers and speeds up the process to boot!

• Alto Packaging for developing technology that will divert around 150 tonnes of waste plastic from landfill each year and turn it into recycled plastic resin to be made into road cones.

• Heathfield Primary School for encouraging boys to blog and lifting their 11 year old test scores from 7% to 63% as a result. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the attributes many successful people often have is their ability to look for and seize trends, concepts and opportunities before other people do. They seem to have a knack of spotting the next ‘big thing’ and positioning themselves to take advantage of it before the masses even knows it exists.

We’re encouraged to keep our eyes and ears open and hone our antennae so that we won’t miss any opportunities and can be in a position to capitalise on them when they do come up. We’re told ‘the early bird catches the worm’ and ‘you snooze, you lose’. The emphasis is most certainly on being as ‘sharp’ as possible with an eye to the future and a nose for success.

But does chasing the future guarantee success? Perhaps success may be equally, or even more assured if we focus on the present instead.

Nothing is more off-putting than knowing the person you’re dealing with in the moment is thinking about something else rather than focusing on you. They might outwardly seem present and correct but you can tell from their body language and facial expressions that you’re not the focus of their attention. Read the rest of this entry »

Each month in Reputationz News I highlight what I consider to be recent reputation winners and losers. They can be people, companies or even abstract ideas. Some are fairly obvious. Others are off-beat or quirky. You may or may not agree! The lists are purely my opinion.

Check out the lists below for my pick of recent reputation winners and losers and feel free to leave a comment or email me with nominations for the next issue if you think someone or something should be included.

Reputation Winners

• Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver for switching his focus from opening his new Ministry Of Food kitchen in flood-devastated Queensland to providing free meals and refreshments for those affected by the floods and relief workers.

• Stockholm Central Station for harvesting body heat from around 250,000 people that pass through it each day and turning it into hot water to heat a nearby office building.

• Retired New Zealand mechanic Lester Atherfold for creating a shortened 2.4m mini-Mini for less than $200 to fit inside his ‘Kiwi Kabin’ motorhome. Read the rest of this entry »