UAE companies put reputation before profit: Survey

Dubai, Aug 30 (IANS/WAM) Once the sole remit of the marketing and public relations departments, reputational risk is now recognised as a critical concern by UAE-based companies, according to a global survey.

The survey by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) found majority of the UAE finance leaders identifying transparency, competitor reputational failures and the rise in social media channels as key contributing factors to a company's reputation.

Of all the organisations surveyed, only 47 percent said they use feedback from social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to anticipate and manage risk to their reputation.

Similarly, 47 percent of those surveyed had no formal processes or models in place for calculating the financial impact of not managing reputational risk.

Geetu Ahuja, head of GCC-Middle East at CIMA, said: "Organisations are increasingly recognising the need to take reputational risks very seriously if potential crises are not to turn into catastrophes."

However, she cautioned that the study revealed that "businesses still appear to be struggling with how they go about managing non-financial reporting in this area".

"In order to be fully protected, it is vital for finance directors and leaders to start moving away from focusing primarily on the short term and to begin collecting, reporting and monitoring reputational risk information," she said.

--IANS/WAM

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