Is 35% Of Your Value Worth The Gamble?
It's 11 pm on a Tuesday when your phone explodes. A tweet. An allegation. A product failure is going viral. And in that moment, as you watch the notifications multiply, you realize: We never planned for this. You're not alone; most companies haven't.
According to the World Economic Forum, “35% of an organization's value is its reputation.” That's up 10 points from when they reported on this metric in 2012.
Let that sink in. More than one-third of what makes your company valuable isn't your product, your patents, or your profit margins. It's how you’re perceived.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most companies think they're ready. They're not.
Deloitte found that 76% of board members believe their companies would handle a crisis effectively. But only 49% have actually prepared for one.
That gap between confidence and readiness? That's where reputations die.
Hope isn't a strategy. And in crisis communications, overconfidence is a liability you can't afford.
You don't wing the earnings call. You don't skip security testing. Your reputation deserves the same care you give everything else that matters.
Because when a crisis hits, and statistically it will, you'll rise/fall to the level of your preparation.
The Real Cost of Crisis
Let's talk dollars and cents. If 35% of your value is reputation, and the average publicly-traded company is worth $10 billion, we're talking about $3.5 billion in brand value sitting on the table.
One poorly handled crisis can evaporate a significant chunk of that overnight.
But the financial hit is just the beginning. According to that same Deloitte research, when a crisis strikes, the damage ripples through your entire organization:
48% report impact to employees: Your top talent starts polishing their resumes. That VP you recruited? Taking calls from headhunters by week two.
41% see sales decline: Customers don't pause, they choose competitors. Your sales team now does damage control instead of closing deals.
39% experience productivity drops: When everyone's in crisis mode, no one's doing their actual job. Projects stall. Deadlines slip.
33% suffer leadership reputation damage: It's not just the company's reputation on the line—it's yours. In the age of Google, that follows you forever.
27% see an impact to customer loyalty: You earned that trust in drops, and you’ll lose it in buckets should you break trust with your customers.
The Real-World Examples
Wells Fargo (2016): Employees created millions of fake accounts to meet sales targets. The bank paid over $3 billion in fines, the CEO resigned, and 5,300 employees were fired. Six years later, they were still bleeding, losing $2.4 billion in Q2 2022 due to scandal-related expenses.
Uber 2017 The Sexual Harassment Crisis: Former engineer, Susan Fowler, published a bombshell blog post detailing systemic sexual harassment at Uber. The fallout was immediate and devastating. Top tech companies circled like sharks. Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Lyft actively poached Uber's talent. CEO Travis Kalanick was forced to resign. The crisis that started with one blog post cost them their leader, their talent, and their reputation.
The Bottom Line
Crisis preparedness plans aren't an expense. They're an investment. You've built something worth protecting. Let's make sure it stays that way.
Contact our team to learn how we can help you move from hope to resilience—before the next crisis hits.