Reputation: Safety stress tests

It is widely recognised that reputation and the perception of a company’s ability to operate in a responsible manner is one of the most valuable assets to a business. Hazardous industries, such as oil & gas drilling and nuclear power share numerous examples of how a company’s reputation can be tarnished if the company is responsible for an accident or incident which puts human safety and/or the environment at risk.

Indeed, over one year on from the major spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s reputation has not managed to recover in spite of the company’s efforts to improve its credibility. Alva’s reputation analysis sees BP continue to perform poorly with it placed last in the Alva Reputation Index for the Oil & Gas sector with a score of 5.87, -0.38 below the industry average. Furthermore, PRWeek‘s latest survey of more than 2,000 respondents revealed that BP‘s reputation shows no sign of recovering with 50% of the public still holding a negative opinion of the oil major, the same number as at the time of the spill.

This article was written by Nicholas Chrysanthou, energy consultant analyst at Alva and released in full on Energy Business Review.