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No historical moment has been as complex for companies as the current one. We live in a digital world, a time of virtualization and instantaneity, with a consequent dispersion of our realities. Society has been marked by the shortening of spaces and by an overwhelming form of access to information, fast and massive.
In the avalanche of events that are addressed to us on a daily basis, the reputation of a company that was built over years can quickly fade. Esteem and good fame are easily shaken by the uncontrolled diffusion of mere news, even if it is not proved. While a company's reputation depends on building slowly, the overwhelming publicity of a single negative episode can expose its solidity overnight, sentencing it without defense, often with minimal right of reply.
What to do in the face of this risk?
In addition to the gradual, cautious construction and based on good professional advice in the reputational field, the implementation of good practices and the commitment to compliance can be achieved by the so-called compliance programs. Compliance appears as a modern tool that goes hand in hand with the creation and maintenance of business reputation.
“In particular, compliance is the first step towards building and maintaining a solid reputation. For the social imaginary, it is the popularly known 'doing the right thing'. “
The company's senior management places the hope of maintaining its reputation on its commitment to good governance practices, which is based on ethics, transparency and the integrity of its actions with the public. In particular, compliance is the first step towards building and maintaining a solid reputation.
For the social imaginary, it is the popularly known “doing the right thing”. In the corporate world, this means avoiding dubious situations and exposure to foreseeable risks. A compliance program is to act in the prevention, inspection and control of risks within the company.
Being in compliance is, first, but evidently not only that, enforcing the regulations imposed on business activities in the public and private sectors. Maintaining your reputation means being aware of the rules and complying with internal procedures, adopting the proper standards of corporate conduct. The search for a good reputation involves, not only, but also, the quest to be in compliance, and this can be fundamental to face a challenging episode. Overcoming the paradigm of “doing the right thing” or “doing it right” contributes to the construction of a compliance model in Brazil, and this bears fruit in building a culture of reputation not only for companies but also for our country.
Alexandre Wunderlich is a doctor and master in law, university professor and founding partner of Alexandre Wunderlich Advogados
The signed articles reflect the opinion of the authors
