There’s a reason sports teams spend more time practicing than playing. Winning isn’t just about how you perform under pressure—it’s about how prepared you are before the game even starts.
The same is true for your reputation.
If you only think about managing it when there’s a crisis, you’re already losing ground. A reputation isn’t a fire to put out; it’s a structure you build over years, brick by brick, so it can weather the storms without collapsing.
For financial executives, that means making reputation an active part of leadership—not a reactive scramble.
Reputation is a compound asset
In our first article in this series, we explored how Wikipedia entries can shape public perception in real time and why even small inaccuracies can become the accepted record.
In our second installment, we looked at how the first 24 hours of a crisis sets the tone for everything that follows.
This time, we’ll focus on how to keep your reputation strategy in motion so you’re not just reacting to events, but actively shaping your narrative every day.
Think of your reputation like compounding interest: it grows over time if you keep making consistent deposits. Those deposits aren’t ujst tweets or quarterly statements, they’re the actions, appearances, and associations that form the running story about you.
The more consistent those actions, the harder it is for one bad headline to define you. A strong reputation creates “narrative equity,” where positive coverage outweighs the occasional controversy in search results and public memory.
The long game: shaping your narrative before others do
The internet is crowded with executives who became “known” because of a single, unplanned moment. But the ones with durable reputations are known for something they chose.
Your long-term narrative might be:
The fintech CEO who speaks plainly about consumer protection
The CFO who champions sustainable finance
The portfolio manager who makes market analysis accessible
Whatever it is, it won’t stick unless you repeat it across media, conferences, panels, op-eds, and internal comms. A clear throughline in your public footprint makes it harder for others to hijack your story.
Beyond PR: The 4 pillars of proactive reputation management
Most execs think “PR” and stop there. In reality, a full offensive strategy has multiple touchpoints:
> Media positioning: Build relationships with journalists before you need them. Offer background briefings, comment on industry trends, and be available as a source. Consistency breeds trust, and trusted sources get quoted when it counts.
> Thought leadership content: Publish pieces that actually contribute to the conversation—not just press releases in disguise. In finance, credibility comes from analysis, foresight, and transparency, not generic talking points.
> Event presence: Choose conferences, roundtables, and webinars that align with your narrative. Your speaking calendar says as much about your focus as your press mentions.
> Digital footprint health checks: Audit what shows up on Page 1 of Google for your name every quarter. That means checking not only news stories, but also your company bio, headshots, videos, podcasts, and yes—your Wikipedia page. Old, inconsistent, or irrelevant results dilute your narrative.
Allies aren’t always obvious
Reputation-building isn’t a solo sport. The best defense against future crises is having third parties who can vouch for you publicly. That could mean:
Former colleagues
Industry association leaders
Nonprofit boards you’ve served on
Journalists who’ve covered you fairly in the past
When these voices have a positive, consistent impression of you, they can even help reframe or contextualize a so-called ‘negative’ moment before it snowballs.
The missing metric: reputation equity
Finance leaders are fluent in KPIs, but few measure their own “reputation equity.” Start by tracking:
> Tone of coverage: Not just how often you’re mentioned, but whether it’s positive, neutral, or negative.
> Diversity of mentions: Are you being quoted on multiple topics or just one?
> Search result resilience: Does one negative headline dominate Page 1 for weeks, or is it balanced by positive content
> Third-party credibility: How often are you referenced by others in your industry, unprompted?
Over time, these indicators reveal whether you’re moving toward or away from your desired reputation.
Proactive ≠ performative
There’s a temptation to treat reputation-building as a branding exercise with polished headshots, scripted talking points, and photo ops. But a purely cosmetic approach doesn’t survive scrutiny.
Substance matters. If you claim to champion transparency, you need a track record of open communication. If you talk about innovation, show proof in the products, partnerships, or strategies you lead.
Why it matters
In a high-speed news cycle, your reputation isn’t built while people are watching but in the months and years they aren’t. And in finance, where trust is a volatile currency, being known for something meaningful is far more valuable than being known for nothing until a scandal forces the spotlight.
Play offense. Build the story you want told about you, long before someone else decides to write it.