Case studies > Reputation management in the public sector
The Brief
All publicly funded bodies are increasingly coming under intense public and media scrutiny. As such organisations are under constant pressure to ensure that their stakeholders have a clear understanding of the role, impact and purpose of the organisation.
Epoch has worked with a number of publicly funded bodies to ensure they are best placed to withstand scrutiny and are able to perform their role as effectively was possible. Good corporate governance means that executive teams need to take reputation management seriously. It is vital to identify key stakeholders, address misconceptions and ensure that reputations is aligned with operational purpose. .
The Result
Uncovering stakeholder perceptions and potentially threatening issues requires an organisation to take a step back. It’s about engaging those groups and individuals that have influence. Epoch approached this project using a robust methodology that involved desk research to identify the most pressing issues and influential individuals from industry, member organisations, politics and the media. Over 20 in-depth interviews were conducted with key internal and external stakeholders focused on exploring attitudes to the organisation and the key issues affecting its reputation.
The report delivered both a structured prioritisation of the issues at hand, ranked in order of impact and time criticality and a detailed map of the most influential stakeholders. This analysis enabled a thorough mapping of stakeholders and actionable recommendations on how those groups and individuals could best be engaged with. The organisation is currently putting the recommendations into action to manage issues before they impact its reputation and operations.