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Google has Best Reputation in U.S., Airlines Fall
Not only has the stock market lost ground since last fall, but so has the reputation of Corporate America in the eyes of consumers. Seven out of 11 industries saw their reputation decline last year from 2006 and 16 of the companies with the worst marks fell even further, according to the Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient (RQ) survey.

But despite a slide in Corporate America’s image among consumers, the RQ found that a strong statistical correlation exists between a company’s overall reputation and the likelihood that consumers will purchase, recommend or invest in a company or its products and services.

What does it take to get to the top? Google provides a case in point. Four years ago, the company was not included among the top 60 most visible companies on the list. But this year, Google rose to No. 1, beating last year’s RQ reputation leader, Microsoft. Google also beat this year’s second-runner-up, Johnson & Johnson, which was the top ranked company, until last year, since the inception of the survey in 1999.

The top 10 companies on this year’s list in order of ranking include: 1) Google; 2) Johnson & Johnson; 3) Intel Corporation; 4) General Mills; 5) Kraft Foods; 6) Berkshire-Hathaway Inc.; 7) 3M Company; 8) The Coca-Cola Company; 9) Honda Motor Co.; 10) Microsoft.

From an industry perspective, the technology sector fared very well with Google, Intel Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation all being within the top 10 ranking. Coming out of its very public Board battles, Hewlett-Packard/Compaq was the biggest gainer and Intel, Apple and Google also showed significant positive rating changes from 2006 to 2007.

With mergers, bankruptcies, and media attention around cancelled flights frustrating consumers, the airline industry had the largest drop in rankings from 2006, with only 26% of Americans giving positive RQ scores to airlines.

Following are additional survey findings:

  • Overall, more companies taking an active role affecting and managing their reputation are seeing positive results, while those that are not continue to see their reputation decline. Of those companies who scored in the Top 30, 19 (63 percent) improved their scores year-over-year, while 11 (37 percent) had scores that declined. However, of the companies that scored in the Bottom 30, just 14 (47 percent) improved their scores year-over-year while 16 (53 percent) declined even further.


  • Despite a drop in the consumer products sector overall, many consumer packaged goods companies scored in the upper echelons with General Mills, Kraft Foods and The Coca-Cola Company ranking in the Top 10. Of interest, males tend to give higher scores to technology companies and women give top marks to consumer packaged goods companies.


  • Of the 52 companies measured in both 2007 and 2006, 15 experienced noticeable changes in their reputations – nine went up and 6 declined. What’s striking, is that in the previous four years combined, 2003 to 2006, there had been 14 significant movements, 4 of which were declines.


  • In addition to significant shifts for technology companies, other big gainers in 2007 included Berkshire Hathaway, BP and Verizon Communications. Berkshire Hathaway benefitted from its strong financial performance as well as the halo effect of Warren Buffets’ $37 billion donation to charity the previous year. BP, which had a number of challenges in recent years including the CEO’s resignation over an affair, a plant explosion that resulted in employee deaths, and pipeline leaks in Alaska, likely benefitted from continued goodwill from its "Beyond Petroleum" advertising campaign as it has outranked its oil and gas competitors in recent years, despite low marks for the sector overall in corporate reputation.

    • [Full Article] Jun-26-2008
    U.S. High-Tech Industry Adds Jobs for Third Year in a Row
    AeA, a high-tech trade association, today released its 11th annual Cyberstates report detailing national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages, and other key economic factors for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The report, Cyberstates 2008: A Complete State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry, shows that in 2007, the high-tech industry continued growing, adding 91,400 net jobs for a total of 5.9 million in the United States. This is on top of job gains of 139,000 in 2006 and 87,400 in 2005.

    An examination of the sectors reveals that software services added 82,600 jobs in 2007, up for the fourth year in a row. Engineering and tech services added 45,800 jobs in 2007, also up for the fourth year in a row, putting it at an all time high. On the downside, high-tech manufacturing lost 29,800 net jobs in 2007. Seven of the nine tech manufacturing sectors lost jobs in 2007. Only the defense electronics and electromedical equipment sectors added jobs. The communications services sector continued to shed jobs in 2007, albeit at a slower pace, losing 7,200 compared to a loss of 16,900 in 2006.

    On a state-by-state basis, Cyberstates 2008 shows that 48 cyberstates added jobs in 2006, the most recent data available. California led the nation, adding 21,400 net jobs. The next largest net gains in tech employment between 2005 and 2006 occurred in Texas (+13,700) and Virginia (+ 9,800). Rounding out the top five were New Jersey (+8,500) and New Mexico (+6,700).

    For the second straight year, Virginia led the nation in concentration of high-tech workers in 2006, with 91 high-tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers. Until 2005, Colorado had owned this distinction since 1998. Massachusetts ranked second in 2006, with 87 high-tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers. Colorado was third, with 83 tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers.

    The report also found that for the second straight year, venture capital investments in the technology industry rose, adding $945 million or six percent in 2007, for a total of $16.9 billion. High tech accounts for 58 percent of all venture capital investments in the nation. R&D expenditures by high-tech companies jumped by six percent in 2005, the most recent data available, totaling $74.9 billion, 37 percent of total U.S. industry R&D expenditures.
    [Full Article] May-01-2008
    Management, Lack of Opportunities Top Reasons Why People Quit
    For companies wanting to stop turnover, a recent survey suggests that the source lies at the top. Both ineffective leadership and a lack of opportunities or challenges within an organization are reasons behind employees' throwing in the towel, according to Philadelphia-based Right Management's survey of more than 1,000 respondents.

    Thirty percent say they left their jobs to seek new challenges or opportunities that were lacking with their previous employers. In addition, 25 percent said they left because of ineffective leadership; 22 percent cited poor relationships with their managers; and 21 percent said their contributions were not valued.

    Turnover can cost a company more than just a seasoned employee: Research found that it costs nearly three times an employee's salary to replace someone, which includes recruitment, training, severance, lost productivity, and lost opportunities.

    Only 43 percent of U.S. employees are fully engaged in their jobs, meaning more than half are not, according to Right Management's research.
    [Full Article] May-01-2008
    The E-Leash: Wireless And Worry Free
    So long to the days of the corporate e-leash. No longer are employees stressed by their wireless devices and made to feel harnessed by too much connectivity. According to Yahoo! HotJobs' annual virtual workplace survey, 37 percent of employees feel more relaxed than stressed when they are connected to work by a wireless device, and another 42 percent are altogether indifferent to their wireless device, feeling neither relaxed nor stressed by it.

    Along with the widespread acceptance of wireless devices may come a lapse in proper etiquette. Of those surveyed, 18 percent admit to being reprimanded for having bad manners when it comes to their wireless device. This behavior extends in and out of work with another 39 percent saying that they respond almost instantaneously when they receive a professional email or call outside of business hours.

    With 38 percent of respondents describing their wireless device as a necessity, these gadgets have become exponentially more integrated into workplace culture:

  • The majority, 55 percent, of respondents use more than one wireless device to stay connected when outside of work.


  • More than half, 55 percent, of respondents say that their office supports a virtual workplace culture — allowing employees to choose from where they'd like to work.


  • Almost one in three, 28 percent, of respondents say that having the freedom of remote access via a wireless device helps them work more effectively than when they are in the office.


  • Almost one quarter of survey respondents admit to only putting their wireless device down when they are sleeping, and only 5 percent of respondents admit to being 100 percent offline when not in the office—down from 8 percent last year.


    • As wireless devices become further cemented into corporate culture, a spectrum of acceptable and unacceptable behavior has emerged. Inappropriate wireless device etiquette (in order of least to most reprehensible):

  • Answering a work call or email during personal time after work hours.


  • Talking on the phone while in close quarters (e.g. train, plane, bus).


  • Talking on the phone while in the bathroom.


  • Answering the phone or emails while at a business dinner.


  • Accepting a personal call while in a meeting or presentation.

    • [Full Article] May-01-2008
    Women Four Times More Likely Than Men to Give Passwords for Chocolate
    A survey by Infosecurity Europe of 576 office workers have found that women far more likely to give away their passwords to total strangers than their male counterparts, with 45% of women versus 10% of men prepared to give away their password, to strangers masquerading as market researches with the lure of a chocolate bar as an incentive for filling in the survey. The survey was actually part of a social engineering exercise to raise awareness about information security. The survey was conducted outside Liverpool Street Station in the City of London.

    This year’s survey results were significantly better than previous years. In 2007 64% of people were prepared to give away their passwords for a chocolate bar, this year it had dropped to just 21%, so at last the message is getting through to be more infosecurity savvy. The researchers also asked the office workers for their dates of birth to validate that they had carried out the survey here the workers were very naïve, with 61% revealing their date of birth. Another slightly worrying fact discovered by researchers is that over half of people questioned use the same password for everything (e.g. work, banking, web, etc.)

    Workers were also queried about their use of passwords at work; half said that they knew their colleagues passwords and when asked if they would give their passwords to someone who phoned and said they were from the IT department, 58% said they would. Researchers also asked workers if they thought other people in their company knew their CEO's password; 35% them thought that someone else did, with personal assistants and IT staff being the most likely suspects.

    Most people used only one (31%), two (31%) or three (16%) passwords at work, but a few poor souls had to use as many as 32. It was also found that 43% of people rarely or never change their password, which is very poor security practice.
    [Full Article] May-01-2008
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