Tesco > Tesco: After Years at the Top Followed By a Precipitous Fall, Can CSR Help the Supermarket Giant Regain Its Luster?
Tesco—the 95-year old multinational grocery and general merchandise chain—is among the most recognizable British brands worldwide. In fact, it is the UK's biggest retailer by sales, the nation's biggest private employer, and the world's third largest supermarket with stores located as far as Turkey and South Korea. With its wide reach, longevity, and sheer size, Tesco is the kind of retailer you would assume to be a trusted brand.

Heinz > Heinz: How a Revised Reputation Management Strategy Could Be the Ketchup Maker's Recipe for Future Success
As the 60 or so most senior executives of the H.J. Heinz Company walked through the grand entrance to the Four Seasons San Francisco this past June, they knew that this year's Chairman's Leadership Conference would be like no other.1 Just days earlier, Heinz, the 144-year-old American icon best known as the purveyor of Heinz ketchup, announced its sale to Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital and famed investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway for $28 billion. From the onset, there was an air of uncertainty as to how the storied food manufacturer would fare under this new regime. Jorge Paulo Lemann, 3G's CEO and Brazil's richest man, had developed a reputation as an aggressive, ruthless cost-cutter over the years, and the Heinz transaction proved to be no different.

Barclays > How Barclays Is Banking on Reputation to Revive Its Troubled Firm
Barclays, the storied 323-year old British banking conglomerate, has become a lightning rod for criticism after a series of scandals shattered its reputation and eroded public confidence in the firm. This case study examines Barclays's current reputation and evaluates the strategies being used to restore trust in the bank and revamp its image and relations with stakeholders.

Microsoft > Microsoft's Nokia Acquisition: A Reputation Rejuvenator or Too Little Too Late?
No one could have predicted the speed with which brick-like cell phones would become obsolete in our new, mobile-computing world. Between technological advances and the rise of the Internet, mobile devices have become an indelible part of our daily lives, with expected shipments of cell phones topping 1.0 billion units for 2013. A similar meteoric rise took place in the home computing space. Once an exorbitant expense for the average American, computing devices ranging from desktops to laptops quickly became household fixtures as technology progressed and lowered the costs of producing these goods. Their development, in fact, enabled the popularity of the modern smartphone, a device which relies on the programming initially pioneered for use in computers.

A-B InBev > The St. Louis Sellout: How AmBev Transformed a Family-owned Domestic Powerhouse into an International Staple
Just over five years ago, Anheuser-Busch—America's largest brewer—agreed to merge with Belgian-Brazilian monolith AmBev. The $52 billion deal was fraught with controversy. Domestic employees and shareholders alike thought that the Busch family—who ran the company for the greater part of a century—had ceded leadership to a foreign cohort, and along with it their claim to a once sacred piece of Americana. To make matters worse, the newly formed conglomerate eliminated more than 1,400 local positions in St. Louis in the name of efficiency, giving rise to claims that the company had lost its way by disregarding the "human element" that laid the foundation for the once local company's reputation (reports that SeaWorld and Busch Gardens were to be sold to the Blackstone Group did little to help). The mood in St. Louis was dismal. What would happen to the local economy? What about the thousands of employees whose once secure positions were suddenly at risk? And what would become of the vanguard brand whose beer was as American as a beer can get?

Electrolux > Nurturing Reputation through Innovation and Stakeholder Engagement
As the fads of the 1950s diminished, so too did Electrolux's stock price. The Swedish white goods company, best known for its line of vacuums, had hit a fiscal roadblock. To spearhead a financial turnaround, the company brought telecom executive Hans Werthén to the helm in 1967. The new CEO diagnosed Electrolux's predicament: it was too small to be competitive, yet too big to continue with its limited product portfolio.

BlackRock > How BlackRock Broke Through the Post-Financial Crisis Sea of Sameness With "Investing for a New World"
By early 2012, daily headlines on European debt made it abundantly clear that the economic destinies of people across the globe are inextricably linked. Despite recent hopeful signs of economic recovery and rebounding markets three years after the bottom of the global financial crisis, there was still a gnawing sense that things weren't right. CEOs felt like business was better than expected, but the overall economic outlook still remained murky. Thus, lacking confidence in the future, they continued to build their cash reserves even as earnings improved.

General Electric > How General Electric Moved From Imagination At Work To GE Works Platform For All Stakeholders
When it was announced in late 2000 that Jeff Immelt would be taking the helm of GE, some skeptics were quick to voice their reservations about the future of the company after Jack Welch. Not only were Welch's shoes particularly large ones to fill, but the economy was dallying with a recession, China and India were taking their first giant steps into the global economy, and just four days into Immelt's tenure came the biggest game changer of all: 9/11.

McKinsey & Company > How McKinsey Guards Its Reputation Capital As a Trusted Advisor to Governments and Businesses
The management consulting industry is a multibillion dollar juggernaut around the world. Roughly 1/3 of all business school graduates from the FT Global 100 MBA programs take a consulting job after graduation, and popular culture has produced a caricature of low-brow TV shows (Showtime?s "House of Lies") and journalistic critiques (best-selling books include The Witch Doctors written by two editors from The Economist) about the good, the bad, and the ugly about consulting since the 1990s. There is little doubt that McKinsey & Company stands at the front of the line when it comes to its impact on the history of the profession and the evolution of the industry itself.

BMW > The Event
BMW: known the world over as the uncompromising manufacturers of the so-called "ultimate driving machine." To say the slogan is audacious is undoubtedly an understatement, but if the last decade has made anything clear, it's that the company's ambitions match its pretentions.

Pick n Pay > How Pick n Pay Plays the Reputation Game in South Africa
In the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, many international retailers sought to take advantage of the world's largest sporting event in Africa's biggest economy, just a decade and a half removed from the end of apartheid and the reintegration of South Africa into the community of nations.

Coach > Coach: Continuing a Legacy of "Affordable Luxury" and Reputation Excellence
The 2008-2009 financial malaise that plagued the U.S. economy proved to be a sink or swim scenario for many retailers. Shop windows—normally adorned with mannequins wearing fashionable attire or displays showcasing the latest product offerings—instead featured sale signs promoting deep discounts and hefty markdowns. Several long-established retailers including Circuit City, Linens 'N Things, and KB Toys went bust, sending shivers down the spines of retail executives while financial analysts speculated who would be next to bite the dust. As the economic environment worsened, even luxury retailers Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany's—traditionally immune to such recessionary conditions—found their revenues and profits at the mercy of the Great Recession...indeed, the retail landscape appeared to be coming undone.

MTS > MTS: Coping with the Country Effect
For MTS—Russia?s leading telecommunications firm—2010 was an auspicious year. It marked milestone after milestone for a long brand building journey; with ?most valuable Russian brand? (Interbrand), "most powerful Russian brand" (Financial Times/Milward Brown), and "the world's 72nd most valuable brand worldwide" (Financial Times/Milward Brown) as just some of the many accomplishments along the road.

No doubt, these were monumental achievements for a company just 17 years in business—both a cause for celebration and a galvanizing start to the decade. But what did this really mean for the powerhouse Russian brand? Was it a testament to a new age of local, and perhaps global brand recognition? To brand admiration? To brand trust? What did people really think and feel about this burgeoning Russian presence?

Costa Concordia/Carnival > Drawing from Reputation Capital in a Time of Crisis

On January 13th 2012, Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia smashed into a reef while sailing close to Isola del Giglio in Tuscany, Italy. Damage to the hull and subsequent flooding caused the ship to drift aground the island's eastern shore, requiring the ship's 4,250 crewmembers and passengers to evacuate as it continued to list and sink. A delayed evacuation resulted in the deaths of 17, another 64 injured and fifteen missing. The threat of oil spillage, environmental damage, and an extremely costly salvage mission served to exacerbate the severity of the event.

Costa Concordia's crew received the brunt of the blame for the incident. Captain Francesco Schettino admitted to making unauthorized changes to the computerized routing system with intentions to treat people ashore to a 'close sail-past' salute. Upon collision with the reef, Schettino told passengers that the accident was a manageable power failure and then allegedly proceeded to mislead maritime officials upon a routine inquiry. Delayed preparations to abandon ship and hindered evacuation procedures resulted in many passengers becoming trapped inside the tilting ship. Though tasked with coordinating the evacuation to completion, Captain Schettino and First Officer Ciro Ambrosio allegedly abandoned ship with hundreds of passengers still on board—both claiming to have 'tripped' into lifeboats during the procedure. Schettino and Ambrosio were subsequently arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and willful disregard of Italian navigation laws.