Everything an individual or company does or produces contributes to its reputation. Reputation is an intangible asset, but a very important one. In some ways it is even better than having money in bank, but not as easily quantified.

A good reputation is its own advertising and quality seal. It can engender loyalty in customers that can cross several generations and time zones. A good reputation can bring in more customers in good times, and be a protective buffer in bad times.

The author has delineated what he calls the, “18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation.” This book holistically deals with topic of reputation management in three parts: establishing a good reputation, keeping that good reputation and repairing a damaged reputation.

Law One: Maximize Your Most Powerful Asset Reputation is an intangible asset yet it is arguably most valuable asset to manage and maximize. A good reputation can attract and keep customers, investors, and employees. Because of this, a good reputation is like a reservoir of good will (towards company) to help it weather bear markets, scandals, or natural crises. Conversely, a lost or damaged name can scar a company and provoke boycotts or drive off new capital.

Law Two: Know Thyself – Measure Your Reputation Before you can manage your reputation you must first measure it and keep score. Measuring reputation is easily done through standard public opinion or market studies; but as each corporation has different stakeholders (target markets, shareholders, etc.) it is necessary to customize. Less than half of corporations have custom research programs. There are no clear methodologies so it is important to identify stakeholders (from local to global) and relevant attributes or quantities to be measured: same company may rank differently in different surveys/studies. Law Three: Learn to Play to Many Audiences No company is an island. Everyone has opinion on everything. You can never please everybody. Stakeholders are everybody involved with corporation. The group is as diverse as: customers, employees, investors, market analysts, shareholders, government, special interest groups, local communities, retirees, etc. Know who are important and play to them. It is helpful to think of stakeholders in terms of a hierarchy or, graphically, as a pyramid with most influential at peak and others following in descending order. However, it is important to keep in mind that stakeholder influence is a dynamic relationship and same model or model is not necessarily applicable to other markets/locales.

Law Four: Live Your Values and Ethics Studies of America’s largest companies show that a strong reputation for moral and ethical conduct performed better financially in terms of their returns on investment and equity, and their sales and profit growth. One study cites that on average excess value beyond shareholders’ investments comes up to $10.6 billion more than companies without a clear code of ethics and supporting behavior.

Law Five: Be a Model Citizen At Timberland, social responsibility is an integral part of company’s identity and is a significant component of its reputation. Aside from activities like monitoring their contractor’s overseas facilities, improving energy efficiency at facilities, and minimizing chemical wastes; they encourage volunteering for community service by considering it as paid leave. Law Six: Convey a Compelling Corporate Vision What is this corporation trying to do? That is question answered by Corporate Vision and guiding principle of its leaders and personified by CEO. The vision and leaders motivate stakeholders, who in turn have enormous impact on reputation.

Law Seven: Create Emotional Appeal Emotional appeal is difficult to quantify or define; but it is what engenders passionate customer loyalty and strengthens reputations. It is mostly shaped by sum of people’s long-term interactions with company’s employees, products, services, and even advertisements.

Establishing emotional appeal is more than just satisfying customers. It is also about getting customer to identify happiness or contentment with product. In fast paced electronic world it is also helped by a personal touch or special treatment.

Law Eight: Recognize Your Shortcomings Examine your reputation and assess if your current business practices still build that reputation. Only by first recognizing discrepancies and problems can you take steps to fix them. The sooner you come clean, sooner you can fix them and do “damage control” before it reaches a crisis situation.

STEP#1. First you have to recognize that in order to make money in almost any market (i.e. stocks, commodities, real estate, etc.) you need to have market in motion. In other words, prices or value have to be changing substantially, either up or down, for you to make money. Did you know that many traders back in NASDAQ bubble made millions by adopting a style that made perfect sense for type of bubble market that was being experienced? Of course this was financially devastating to buy and hold investors who bought at market top. So what is difference? The answer is a difference in investing/trading style and risk management.

STEP #2. Now throw a little reality into picture. Specifically, you need to realize that nobody can consistently predict turning point of a rapidly moving market. People who pay attention to value (which is always a wise move) can tell you when things are out of whack with market, but they cannot tell you if market will turn in a week, a year, or a decade! Warren Buffet correctly predicted that stock market was way over valued LONG before it actually corrected. Since Warren is a value-type investor, it made perfect sense to stay on sidelines. In contrast, many active traders became multiple millionaires during that period and then rapidly adapted to market downturn. Both were "correct" for type of style that they employed.