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29.07.2021

Work On Reputation Never Ends

Dr. Olena Derevianko is widely known in Eastern Europe as a first-class specialist in reputation management and research at the intersection of politics and economics. Her works are known and cited. Her interviews on professional topics are easily searched on the Internet. However, no information on the general character of all her projects could not be found on the Internet, except on her personal website. We decided to fix this. This week, a correspondent of Skandinavskii Listok interviewed Olena Derevianko about her life and work.

Hello, Olena! Tell us about yourself, please. Where and how did you spend your childhood?

My hometown is Kyiv. Ancient city, worthy of being among the global cities of the world. My family has been living here for many generations, we are the very native Kyivans; people joke sometimes, saying that Kyivans are hard to come by. Intelligent and eager readers with principles, values, a sense of honor and commitment.

My childhood was a typical Soviet childhood of a boomer generation – had friends in neighbourhood, a school near the house, spent vacations with my parents by the seaside, and even was in Artek. What was unusual about childhood was that my family always clearly understood what our family had lost because of the Bolsheviks and how we could live if they hadn't come to power. A small touch – one of my great-grandmother's childhood memories was about my great-great-grandfather's villa on the Cote d'Azur...

Then, adolescence and youth fell on the formation of an independent Ukraine in the time of Perestroika. Then history rewritten was once again; market economic mechanisms appeared. Therefore, I decided that it was wiser to learn how to make money and not try to gain an insight into new political trends in relation to historical events.

Tell us about your development as a reputation management and PR guru. Why did you choose this path in life? What stages have been passed along the way?

The decision to choose the Economics Department and not the History – which I had dreamed of since childhood) – or Journalism – which my teachers tipped for me – turned out to be the starting point. And then the path was destined regardless of the specialty. There already were two generations of university teachers in the family, so graduate school seemed like an explicable next step. Moreover, the sky's the limit for gold medalists – history, or economics, or journalism. But the life path made the first sharp turn, and graduate school led to... journalism because you need to have publications to defend your Ph.D., and it turns out that good money is paid for my articles. So, together with my future business partner, we were among the most well-known and respected Ukrainian journalists. After, we thought about how to make a business out of it. We were taught to make money, not to seek the truth. The UN publication “Management Consulting” came to hand just in time, and we decided to organize PR Service agency. This autumn, it will be 18 years since its foundation, and for 15 years, we have been a leader in the market.

These are business PR, work with politicians and authorities, all types of media, events of all types, various advanced technical and creative solutions. Simultaneously, a scientific career also developed in a natural way for me. In economics – doctoral dissertation on reputation management and innovative methodology of reputation management. At the intersection of economics and politics – a study of deep social processes in one of the European business schools. And, of course, projects to popularize reputation management – the National Corporate Reputation Management Quality Rating and the International PR Festival, which I supervise; the Ukrainian PR-League and the Association of Corporate Security Professionals of Ukraine, which I lead.

The social networks dominance has led to the fact that many of their users began to believe they can create an image and reputation themselves. What is the relevance of reputation management today?

Ordinary users of social networks who think so fall into a mental trap. By creating and posting content, they throw in the raw material for building their reputation but do not manage it. Working with the reaction of other users – responding to comments, making friends with other people, commenting on something on other people's accounts – they are taking some steps towards management, but they do not fully manage it. Firstly, because they work with a limited audience and only from one angle in one of their social roles. Secondly, because having no strategy and work non-systemically, they have little effect on the object of management, and reputation is formed mainly spontaneously. The exception is professional bloggers. If a person makes it their profession to work with content on social networks and gives it almost all their time, clearly understanding what kind of reputation they build and what for, then only in this case can we talk about “hand-made reputation”.

Your company is one of the top three PR companies in Ukraine, and you are called one of the most respected PR specialists in Eastern Europe. What is the secret of your success?

It is very nice to hear such an appreciation from you. In my achievements and victories of my agency, as usual, 10% of talent and 90% of work. Because talent creates a successful masterpiece (idea, text, project, film), and then you need to breathe life into the masterpiece, present it to people, and properly influence their way of thinking.

But is it a success or not... I do not measure success by the number of awards or regalia. For me, it would be a success if influential people in my country and in the world listened to reasonable advice and, taking care of their people, took care of their reputation. So reputational control mechanisms work in society: politicians fulfill their election promises, and companies respect their consumers, fearing losing their trust. It is this success that my team and I are working for.

Our readers  Russian-speaking residents of Denmark, of which there are more than 30,000 people, many of whom are trying to reach new heights in the field of professional development and business, obviously need your advice. What would you advise our readers to improve their image? Is there a secret to becoming rich and famous?

A favorable reputation is not always required to become rich and famous one-day reign. Hype and image are enough. Reputation is seriously and permanently. Therefore, it is impossible to teach even the basics of reputation management in one interview.

But there are a few basic rules for proper reputation management that I would like to share:

  • You have a reputation, whether you work on it or not. If you do not take care of your reputation, the people around you do it, and it is formed spontaneously.

  • Reputation management is a systematic and planned activity. To manage, you need to set goals and define a roadmap for moving toward them.

  • Reputation is how other people perceive you. Decide what kind of people you need to achieve your goals and focus your actions on them.

  • There is no good or bad reputation. There is a targeted or non-targeted reputation that helps or does not help you achieve your goals.

  • Reputation management means that you need to 1) plan work on it, 2) organize this work, 3) motivate yourself and others to perform the necessary actions, 4) and then control, correct errors, and return to step 1.

  • Work on the reputation never ends. If you stop, the effect of inertia will be enough for a while. Then everything will return to a spontaneous state, only with other initial inputs.

And most importantly. Reputation is not a goal in and of itself. You should not try to live a life that is not yours in pursuit of a reputation. This is a tool that will help you achieve the goals you need, no more, no less.

Your book Reputation Management in Business has become widely known on the European continent, not only among PR specialists but also in the business environment. Tell us about this book for those who have not yet read it.

It is nice to hear that. Surprising, though. It is more of a scholarly work than a business bestseller. Therefore, it requires a certain basic preparation for reading, understanding, and use in work. At the same time, I tried to make it as practical and applied as possible and written in an understandable language. The main scientific achievements presented in it are related to the justification of the reputation management methodology in private companies and corporations. The 3D model I developed looks complicated at first glance. But then I bring it up to an algorithm that allows you to audit the reputation management system, determine areas for improvement, and really improve work with corporate reputation. It is this methodology that forms the basis of the National Corporate Reputation Management Quality Rating, which I have just mentioned.

Tell us about your creative plans for this year.

As the saying goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” From what is already underway, I can say with confidence that a textbook on reputation management for universities will be published in the next business season. In it, I will gather my theoretical, methodological, methodic, and practical developments and illustrate them with Ukrainian and world cases. I plan to immediately translate it into Russian and English. In addition, this is the anniversary year of XX International PR-Festival. We plan to hold the event on a very large scale and where I will be glad to see colleagues from Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. I hope that something else will take place, but this already requires a successful combination of circumstances and more time for creativity.

Thank you for the interview!

Thank you!


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