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“15 years ago, the largest companies were the most respected, but today, many with the best public reputations are smaller, regional players”

@HarrisPoll CEO @johngerzema on the positive rise in public perception of #smallbusiness.

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Merck Manuals Survey Finds Majority of Americans Rarely Think About Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder in the United States with more than 10% of Americans suffering from some impairment that affects their daily communication. Yet many people admit the

2 min Read

News

Kroger Teams Up With Vehicle Startup on Driverless Grocery Deliveries in Arizona

Supermarket giant Kroger partnered with the autonomous vehicle startup, Nuro, to test driverless grocery delivery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Nuro's fleet of self-driving Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf c

1 min Read

The Harris Poll

Scale Is Fail: How Big Companies Need To Act Small To Thrive Today

By John Gerzema, Harris Poll CEO | Forbes | About five years ago, I had an early glimpse into America’s changing corporate landscape in, of all places, Japan. While researching our book, The Athen By John Gerzema, Harris Poll CEO | Forbes |

About five years ago, I had an early glimpse into America’s changing corporate landscape in, of all places, Japan. While researching our book, The Athena Doctrine, I met Ryo Nakagawa. His startup, Share0, helps self-employed entrepreneurs and consultants find office space in companies with empty suites. For generations, the Japanese embraced the “salaryman” model of work, which called for workers to devote themselves to a corporation that would, in turn, provide long-term employment. But Ryo believed the future belongs not to big organizations but to individuals with skills who come together for collaboration.

Born into the Lost Decades of low growth with fewer secure positions available in big corporations, a vast cohort of young Japanese must now reconsider the salaryman ideal and invent other ways to establish themselves.

Fast forward, and a similar dynamic is underway in the U.S. In our annual Reputation Quotient Study of corporate reputation, many large companies declined in esteem and trust. But what really caught our attention was the trendline: Fifteen years ago, the largest companies were the most respected, but today, many with the best public reputations are smaller, regional players and those with intimate customer service and values that resonate within their consumer communities.

Curious, we then assessed which companies had excellent leadership and a similar trend emerged. Even among larger companies, organizations with relatable and humanistic leadership, who speak out for employees and issues they believe in, often lifted the perceptions of their firms. Berkshire Hathaway, for instance, ranked No. 24 overall in the RQ study, but the firm jumps to No. 1 in our RQ leadership ranking, while Apple moves from No. 29 to No. 9.

This shift in trust signals a change in consumer culture and values. Thanks to social media-fueled transparency, the public has more insight into the business practices and values of leading companies. In fact, in a 2015 Gallup Poll, 67% of U.S. adults reported having a great deal of confidence in small businesses, far exceeding the 21% who were similarly confident in big businesses.

It seems that a behemoth scale today is no guarantee of having consumers’ trust. Instead, there is an emerging belief that a bigger business doesn’t always equate to a better business. Even CEOs like Google’s Sundar Pichai have stated as much: "As a big company, you are constantly trying to foolproof yourself against being big, because you see the advantage of being small, nimble and entrepreneurial,” he told The Guardian. “You always think there is someone in the Valley, working on something in a garage -- something that will be better.”

Read more at Forbes.

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Finance

S.E.C. Subpoenas Tesla Over Elon Musk’s Tweet About Going Private

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission served Tesla with a subpoena following CEO Elon Musk's controversial tweets about taking the company private. Musk offered no details of his funding un The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission served Tesla with a subpoena following CEO Elon Musk's controversial tweets about taking the company private.

Musk offered no details of his funding until August 7, when he told investors that he was in talks with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and other potential backers, even though that financing was not yet secured.

Musk's tweets may have violated U.S. securities law if he misled investors. According to an SEC rule, a company's public statements must be true. Each of Tesla's directors has received a written legal order to testify in the matter. A subpoena is a first step in a formal inquiry and subsequently, an investigation, which can take years to yield any action or none at all.

Tesla's shares fell by 3% in afternoon trading, and although the company ranks #3 overall in The Harris Poll's 2018 Reputation Quotient study, and ranked #1 out of the 100 most visible companies in the U.S. for its "vision and leadership," Musk continues to face criticism for being a brash, scrappy iconoclast and it remains to be seen how his latest actions will affect the company.

Readers of the popular electric transportation and sustainable energy news site, Electrek, however support Musk's decision to take the company private. Agreeing with his key rationale for the move:

"...the reason for doing this is all about creating the environment for Tesla to operate best. As a public company, we are subject to wild swings in our stock price that can be a major distraction for everyone working at Tesla, all of whom are shareholders. Being public also subjects us to the quarterly earnings cycle that puts enormous pressure on Tesla to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the long-term. Finally, as the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market, being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026872652290379776

https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/1026912973120462848

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026914941004001280

2 min Read

Client

Hunting for A Job? Be Careful What You Post

By Carol Wolf | MoneyWatch | CBS News | Think before you post, job-seekers: Your potential employer is likely watching your social media feeds. Seventy percent of employers said they look what

2 min Read

The Harris Poll

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Merck Manuals Survey Finds Majority of Americans Rarely Think About Hearing...

Kroger Teams Up With Vehicle Startup on Driverless Grocery Deliveries in...

Scale Is Fail: How Big Companies Need To Act Small To...

S.E.C. Subpoenas Tesla Over Elon Musk’s Tweet About Going Private

Hunting for A Job? Be Careful What You Post

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Merck Manuals Survey Finds Majority of Americans Rarely Think About Hearing Loss

Kroger Teams Up With Vehicle Startup on Driverless Grocery Deliveries in Arizona

Scale Is Fail: How Big Companies Need To Act Small To Thrive Today

S.E.C. Subpoenas Tesla Over Elon Musk’s Tweet About Going Private

Hunting for A Job? Be Careful What You Post

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