Mitigating Reputational Risks - A Proposal With A Knowledge-Based Stakeholder Information Leitstand

Martin Stößlein

The Internet plays a crucial role in the communication strategy of organizations. However, information is often distributed at the “wrong” time and does not always satisfy the particular requirements of key customers, suppliers, governments, shareholders or financial analysts. Serious mistakes might not only create negative sequela, for example, stakeholders remain unsatisfied, downgrade their opinions about products and companies, and subsequently make ‘wrong’ decisions. Such mistakes could also have tremendous effects on the primary objectives of an enterprise, e.g., the reputation suffers and subsequently the share price plunges. In this paper, we present how companies can take advantage of actively providing targeted information with a knowledge-based Stakeholder Information Leitstand (information planning and control center). It helps executives stabilize relationships with key customers, journalists, politicians, investors, and assists in promoting trust and enhancing reputation, especially in times of risk situations. We focus on the design phase of the system, and propose that current decision support systems could be enriched with “business content”, i.e. predefined situation-oriented and individualized information categories and messages.

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