Executive Reputation Case Study

Situation: In business, sometimes the leadership of a company is unfairly targeted by disgruntled former employees.

Several employees of a large corporation were justifiably terminated. The former employees used activist websites and forums to paint the CEO as greedy and unlawful. Though the terminated workers lost their court case against the corporation for unlawful termination, damage was done to the digital reputation of the brand and its CEO. As a result, most of the search results about the CEO were negative.

The CEO turned to Five Blocks for help.

Challenges: Though this CEO was redeemed in the court of law, his online reputation looked dire. Five Blocks was tasked with helping to improve his reputation in the court of public opinion.

Solutions: Five Blocks embarked on a program in tandem with the company’s PR team which included digital reputation management best practices, targeted (local) PR, social media and online video.

The program focused on:

1. Highlighting the CEO’s philanthropic activities in the local press and on each charity’s website: Working with the company’s PR team, we secured press coverage in a leading local publication which highlighted the corporation and its CEO’s philanthropic efforts. The same charities were asked to include information about the company’s charitable contribution on their websites.
2. Leveraging social media and video: A video of company employees who had benefited from the corporation’s aid in the aftermath of a serious natural disaster was uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel. The same video was also placed with the press coverage about the company and distributed via the company’s social media channels.
3. Uploading new, corporate-friendly images to replace unfavorable images: To improve the CEO’s reputation, images of him donating to various charitable organizations were uploaded and used in articles published about the company. These images now appear when querying the company’s CEO in the various search engines.

Results: In just six months after the employee terminations, all prominent search results about the company’s CEO are positive and enhance his reputation. The CEO’s personal reputation is free from unfavorable content in his top search results page, now populated by his significant philanthropic contributions and profile pieces that highlight his business accomplishments.