Are we talking about newspaper awards for companies?
Not just the reputation of top managers. How are newspaper prizes for companies organised? Francis Walsingham's letter
Dear director,
I saw that in recent days on X (formerly Twitter) some professor was interested in my letter on the ranking of "Top Managers" . Delving deeper into the topic of rankings and awards, I came to another rather interesting chapter: awards for companies.
It will not have escaped your notice, dear editor, that Italian newspapers, particularly those of an economic nature, often award awards to companies: "Growth Leaders", "Service Champions", a certain number of sustainability awards (some more selective , others much less) and other prizes awarded by consumers (I have never been asked to express my opinion, and you, director?).
Intrigued, I focused on some of the most prestigious. To be clear: those who push a large company to make a statement to announce that it has been awarded.
They have two characteristics in common: they are issued by an international certifying body in collaboration with the current newspaper and they have many (many) categories. And for each category a rather long ranking. Where everyone is a winner. This ranking is usually built around a "score".
I tried for a long time to better understand which criteria were used to construct these "scores", I was only able to land on a generic "Methodologies" page of one of the certifying bodies that dispenses quality seals, and I was able to understand that there are basically two methods : telephone interviews with customers and “social listening”. That is, measuring (quantitatively and qualitatively) the social interactions around a certain company.
Also for awards such as “TOP quality / price”, survey. Top job (i.e. a place where working is particularly nice)? Social listening. As with the "Green" awards or those for the best e-commerce or the best "digital" companies.
I know what you're thinking: these are scientifically somewhat lame methods. I want to encourage you, for "Growth Leader" you look at the economic data. Press releases from the company, obviously.
Now, the question I asked myself is: why do a certification body and a large and authoritative newspaper use time and resources to reward thousands and thousands of companies, on the basis of a simple survey?
The answer (a bit sad, to be honest) came from a dear friend who deals with marketing and communications in a large company, which in my investigations I have seen appear several times in different "TOP 100" with different scores, but who never gave notice of having received these prestigious awards.
This friend answered my question about what the rationale for all these prizes was by sending me a little letter he received a few weeks ago. Which reads (more or less): Dear marketing manager, we are pleased to inform you that your company is among the winners of the prestigious so-and-so award. If you want to receive the seal of quality with which to boast of this award to your customers and competitors, we can offer it to you for a few thousand euros (otherwise you are not authorized to boast of the medal which we are very happy to pin on you).
Isn't everything beautiful?
Best regards
Francis Walsingham
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And now out the names, please. ( MA )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/premi-aziende-top-manager/ on Sat, 18 Nov 2023 21:32:24 +0000.