Indiantelevision.com Team

(13 August 2007 8:29 pm)

MUMBAI: Infosys Technologies leads the rankings in corporate reputation strength (CRS) in an annual survey conducted by TNS India.

Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Hindustan Lever and Maruti Udyog Ltd are also featured in the top five ranks of the survey.

This is the second annual survey of corporate reputation conducted by TNS India. The study captures the changing times as some companies gain or lose in current Indian market scenario and throws up several industry insights.

While all the top five companies figure in lead rankings across all these stakeholder groups, the leaders in the respective stakeholder segments include some more corporations. Among these companies, there are clear differences in CRS ratings between finance segment, business manager group and the opinion leader segment.

Amongst the financial community, Tata Steel leads with a CRS index of 94. Other companies with relatively strong corporate reputation in this stakeholder group are ICICI Bank, Intel, Wipro Ltd, Tata Motors and Reliance industries. The responses of financial segment seem to be skewed towards the banking sector. 'Visionary and dynamic leadership' has been the key factor while evaluating a company's reputation.

Amongst business managers, Infosys Technologies leads with CRS of complete 100 with TCS, HLL, Intel and Tata Power following. This segment has given most different ratings to companies focusing on more pragmatic dimensions such a 'corporate visibility and image'. Amongst the opinion leaders Tata Tea leads with a CRS Index of 92, states the findings.

Other companies figuring at the top are Infosys, Sail, Asian Paints and Tata Motors. The segment has differentiated itself by giving prime importance to companies that have been involved in social activities and have created strong communication tools in order to be present in minds of the people.

In general, the CRS Index is much higher within the business managers as compared to the financial community and opinion Leaders segments. This could well be a reflection of the focus on improving 'quality of management, corporate visibility and image and HR aspects of companies'.

A total of 70 companies across diverse sectors were selected for the study. The survey was conducted between January-March 2007, with fieldwork audited and certified by the BIS.

To evaluate CRS Index, TNS has taken the ratings for companies by the 'quality of awareness' scores - a measure of the proportion of people aware of the company who claim to know the concerned company 'extremely well' or 'to a significant extent'.