Nina Elomaa, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Fazer: “Reputation must be managed in a way that adds value to the company”
“Reputation is incredibly important to companies. Reputation is something that needs to be managed. Reputation is capital,” says Nina Elomaa, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Fazer, summarizing the essence of reputation.
And since reputation has value, it is, of course, essential to ask how that value can be increased. This is a question that is sure to interest the shareholders of every company.
Nina Elomaa, Head of Sustainability, Fazer
A veteran in sustainability, corporate responsibility, and environmental management, and an expert in stakeholder relations. With an educational background in energy and environmental issues, she has worked in the field of sustainability for many years.
“We may have focused too much on reputation in terms of risk or the loss of reputation. It’s quite rare to start from the premise that reputation needs to be built—or that reputation can be managed in a way that adds value. I think it’s important that we start to move forward on this front as well,” Elomaa says.
Reputation is everyone's responsibility
Elomaa points out that managing a reputation is no different from managing anything else.
First and foremost, this means that we need to talk about reputation. Company leadership must understand what reputation means and what its strategic significance is.
Reputation management starts with getting management on board, but that alone is not enough. It is necessary to initiate and maintain discussions about reputation at all levels of the company.
“We shouldn’t think of reputation as something that’s solely the responsibility of the executive team, the board, or the owners; rather, it’s the responsibility of every employee. Every employee contributes to that reputation at every moment. The elements that make up our reputation must be maintained as part of our day-to-day operations, which means that managing reputation is also part of operational management.”
Elomaa notes that reputation is, of course, by no means a given. In order for the concept and its implications to become tangible, reputation must be measured.
When reputation is measured, its development can be systematically tracked, analyzed—and managed.
Show off your reputation metrics and results
“Management teams don’t have time to spend hours debating issues. They need to be able to systematically track where we stand and what our reputation looks like, and analyze the reasons behind it. That way, we can move things forward at both the strategic and operational levels.”
But how do we bring that reputation down to the operational level and keep it there as part of our day-to-day work?
“One way is to make it visible: display your reputation metrics and results. Show them everywhere: on information boards, on info screens—right on those same channels where you share updates about other company events, such as personnel changes or menu updates.”
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Text: Anu Räsänen
Video production: Vesa Koivunen, Harri Leinikka, Tuuli Pohjola, and Riku Ruokolahti
