The value of a business increasingly lurks

not in physical and financial assets that

are on the balance sheet, but in intangibles.

—The Economist, June 12, 1999

The reputation of your business is what precedes it in the marketplace, be you service or product. Building a reputation based on customer centric service, standing by your brand promise and placing an emphasis on happy customers sows dividends in the short and long term. Businesses and organizations must manage their reputation by communicating with their clients and customers and management must embody honesty, fairness, responsiveness and consistency in dealing, conducting business in a manner that ensures long-term success. People are loyal to companies they feel good about.

How you deal with employees and customers creates the reputation you develop.They are key to the success of every business. Many companies fail to understand the importance of developing and maintaining a consistent reputation as trusted, reliable and treats everyone fairly. The culture of the organization informs the perceptions of the public at large and learning how to assess what kind of reputation your organization has improve upon your approach each employee, customer and client, each of whom has an influential ability to impact the reputation for better or worse.

If the reputation of an organization is tarnished, it is a lengthy and expensive job to shift negative perceptions that have been created by the key constituencies. Management must strive to communicate clearly to employees a culture where they expect them to treat each other and everyone they come in contact with while representing the company in a manner that is consistent with the brand values. When employees deviate, it is important to re inforce those expectations and that behaving in a manner inconsistent with the culture is unacceptable as the values and perspectives build the reputation perception.

I believe there is a strong liaison between Relationship Capital and Social Capital. According to the people over at BetterTogether social capital is built through hundreds of little and big actions we take every day. The original report, published in 2000, attributes a recent decline in social capital primarily to the demographic shift that has taken place across the nation. An exceptionally civic generation of older Americans appears to be slowing down and dying, leaving the far less civic-minded generations of Baby Boomers and Baby Busters to take their place. Contributions were drawn from two-career families, urban sprawl, and television.

The list they have compiled of approximately 150 ideas are drawn from suggestions made by many people and groups and they would be delighted if you would send them any ideas of your own. Sample a selection:

1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbor
2. Attend town meetings
3. Register to vote and vote
4. Support local merchants
5. Volunteer your special skills to an organization
6. Donate blood (with a friend!)
7. Start a front-yard/community garden
8. Mentor someone of a different ethnic or religious group
9. Surprise a new neighbor by making a favorite dinner–and include the recipe
10. Tape record your parents’ earliest recollections and share them with your children
11. Plan a vacation with friends or family
12. Avoid gossip
13. Help fix someone’s flat tire
14. Organize or participate in a sports league
15. Join a gardening club
16. Attend home parties when invited
17. Become an organ donor or blood marrow donor.
18. Attend your children’s athletic contests, plays and recitals
19. Get to know your children’s teachers
20. Join the local Elks, Kiwanis, or Knights of Columbus
21. Get involved with Brownies or Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts
22. Start a monthly tea group
23. Speak at or host a monthly brown bag lunch series at your local library
24. Sing in a choir
25. Get to know the clerks and salespeople at your local stores
26. Attend PTA meetings
27. Audition for community theater or volunteer to usher
28. Give your park a weatherproof chess/checkers board
29. Play cards with friends or neighbors
30. Give to your local food bank
31. Walk or bike to support a cause and meet others
32. Employers: encourage volunteer/community groups to hold meetings on your site
33. Volunteer in your child’s classroom or chaperone a field trip
34. Join or start a babysitting cooperative
35. Attend school plays
36. Answer surveys when asked
37. Businesses: invite local government officials to speak at your workplace
38. Attend Memorial Day parades and express appreciation for others
39. Form a local outdoor activity group
40. Participate in political campaigns
41. Attend a local budget committee meeting
42. Form a computer group for local senior citizens
43. Help coach Little League or other youth sports – even if you don’t have a kid playing
44. Help run the snack bar at the Little League field
45. Form a tool lending library with neighbors and share ladders, snow blowers, etc.
46. Start a lunch gathering or a discussion group with co-workers
47. Offer to rake a neighbor’s yard or shovel his/her walk
48. Start or join a carpool
49. Employers: give employees time (e.g., 3 days per year to work on civic projects)
50. Plan a “Walking Tour” of a local historic area
51. Eat breakfast at a local gathering spot on Saturdays
52. Have family dinners and read to your children
53. Run for public office
54. Stop and make sure the person on the side of the highway is OK
55. Host a block party or a holiday open house
56. Start a fix-it group–friends willing to help each other clean, paint, garden, etc.
57. Offer to serve on a town committee
58. Join the volunteer fire department
59. Go to church…or temple…or walk outside with your children–talk to them about why its important
60. If you grow tomatoes, plant extra for an lonely elder neighbor – better yet, ask him/her to teach you and others how to can the extras
61. Ask a single diner to share your table for lunch
62. Stand at a major intersection holding a sign for your favorite candidate
63. Persuade a local restaurant to have a designated “meet people” table
64. Host a potluck supper before your Town Meeting
65. Take dance lessons with a friend
66. Say “thanks” to public servants – police, firefighters, town clerk…
67. Fight to keep essential local services in the downtown area–your post office, police station, school, etc.
68. Join a nonprofit board of directors
69. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery
70. When somebody says “government stinks,” suggest they help fix it
71. Turn off the TV and talk with friends or family
72. Hold a neighborhood barbecue
73. Bake cookies for new neighbors or work colleagues
74. Plant tree seedlings along your street with neighbors and rotate care for them

75. Volunteer at the library
76. Form or join a bowling team
77. Return a lost wallet or appointment book
78. Use public transportation and start talking with those you regularly see
79. Ask neighbors for help and reciprocate
80. Go to a local folk or crafts festival
81. Call an old friend
82. Sign up for a class and meet your classmates
83. Accept or extend an invitation
84. Talk to your kids or parents about their day
85. Say hello to strangers
86. Log off and go to the park
87. Ask a new person to join a group for a dinner or an evening
88. Host a pot luck meal or participate in them
89. Volunteer to drive someone
90. Say hello when you spot an acquaintance in a store
91. Host a movie night
92. Exercise together or take walks with friends or family
93. Assist with or create your town or neighborhood’s newsletter
94. Organize a neighborhood pick-up  with lawn games afterwards
95. Collect oral histories from older town residents
96. Join a book club discussion or get the group to discuss local issues
97. Volunteer to deliver Meals-on-Wheels in your neighborhood
98. Start a children’s story hour at your local library
99. Be real. Be humble. Acknowledge others’ self-worth
100. Tell friends and family about social capital and why it matters