‘Risk identification critical to protecting organisational reputation’ - The Nation Newspaper (2025)

April 28, 2025 by Our Reporter

Identifying and managing reputation risks are key to effective protection of reputation and long-term success of organisations.

Experts who spoke at a webinar on: “Protecting Your Organisation’s Reputation: The Critical Role of Risk Identification and Management”, agreed that reputation management has influential roles in the success of any organisation.

The webinar, hosted by the National Planning Committee of the Nigeria Public Relations (PR) Week 2025 in collaboration with Drawbridge CM, brought together public relations (PR) and risk management experts to discuss the importance of risk management in safeguarding organisational reputation. It was moderated by Mojisola Saka of Boucles Africa,

President, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Ike Neliaku, emphasised the importance of reputation management in contemporary times.

“So, does reputation matter? Yes, reputation matters indeed because it underpins stakeholder trust. It sustains brand identity. It drives customer dependability. For customers to depend on you, they will depend on you because they know that you have them at heart,” Neliaku said.

He noted that according to Cyber Magazine, companies can lose up to nine per cent of their annual turnover following reputation damage, arising from data privacy or ethics crisis.

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He said: “Indeed, there is a global average loss of $79 million per incident of reputation, data or ethics crisis. So that gives you an idea of how strong the issue of reputation is and when it is affected.

Integrating reputation risk management into broader enterprise risk management framework helps to strengthen our businesses and then facilitates continuity.

“The future of reputation protection lies in collaboration, proactive planning and strategic integration”.

President, Nigerian Chartered Risk Management Institute, Dr. Ezekiel Oseni provided an in-depth analysis of the role of risk management in organizations.

“When you check your financials, your biggest asset could be your land and property. It could be something else which you can quantify, but reputation risk, you cannot put a figure to it. It can make the entire business to go down.

“So, it is the biggest, the most unvalued, the most unquantified, and the most expensive risk to manage,” Oseni said.

Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, TPT International, Adetokunbo Modupe, shared real-world applications of risk management in different industries.

“Business owners should be concerned about reputation and risk because reputation is capital. As a major asset, reputation collapses without trust. Compromised reputation ultimately leads to loss of patronage. Negative impact on the bottom line – can erode profitability, revenue and stock value if a company is traded on the stock market.

“Reputational risk is ever present in all businesses, organizations and human activities. What it is important is our understanding and appreciation of these risks by minimizing the risk potential and emplacing a culture or strategy of mitigation when it does happen. Some risks never leave room for remedy,” Modupe said.

Lead Consultant, Drawbridge CM, Hassan Abdul noted the role of risk identification.

According to him, risk identification and management are critical components of reputation management and organisations must prioritise these areas to protect their reputation and maintain stakeholder trust.

He said the knowledge shared by experts and discussants at the webinar would help organisations strengthen their risk management practices and protect their reputation.

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Ike Neliaku

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