Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010950680700.htm

A lesion on the image of Brand Satyam

Swetha Kannan

Bangalore, Jan. 8 When brand Satyam comes crashing down, what does it do to its own imagery and the clout of IT brands in general?

Mr Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults (a marketing consultancy firm), minces no words when he says a slur is a slur. “Any slur on a brand is like a canker. A canker that casts a shadow on the brand itself. Never mind how big the brand was, and never mind how meteoric and how challenging its rise was.

“The current flare-out of Satyam and the issues surrounding the flare-out cause for a lesion on the image of the brand. This is a forever-lesion. Whatever is done subsequently will always leave a doubt and a question-mark on the brand in times to come. One can crisis-manage this reputation, but the challenges are big.”

The Satyam crisis will definitely have a ripple effect in the IT industry, mainly from a brand perspective. “Satyam does not get affected on its own. This affects every Indian company that operates in this space.

“The outsider and those sitting on the fence of the India-IT story will take the opportunity to use the same brush to paint every IT entity around with a question mark. A white-paper is necessary to avoid other IT firms getting a similar unfair blemish.”

Finding benefit

But brands can also benefit from such a crisis. Says Mr Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-comm (a brand consulting firm): “This is as close to an Enron. A bad example like Satyam has demonstrated the value and importance of corporate governance and ethics and it is likely that brands like Infosys will capitalise from this as you can clearly see the difference.”

‘Salvaging’ motivation

What should IT companies do to protect their reputation in such testing times? Says Mr Sridhar, “Keep your head grounded. Try to focus on internal communication. What needs to be salvaged is the motivation of internal customers — that is your employees.”

Mr Bijoor says: “Individual brands need to work on a collective format of showcasing their corporate governance norms. This should be done immediately on a 1:1 basis with B2B clients direct. Once done, it is time to act collectively under the banner of Nasscom.”