Financial Times: AND THE WINNER FOR CORPORATE IMAGE IS
By Ian Bickerton
Apr 24, 2004
AND THE WINNER FOR CORPORATE IMAGE IS... Royal Dutch/Shell has emerged as the surprising winner of an annual survey of corporate image and reputation in the Netherlands conducted among Dutch decision-makers, writes Ian Bickerton in Amsterdam.
The company, as it had a year earlier, finished "streets ahead" of the competition - Philips, the electronics concern, and ABN Amro, the Netherlands' biggest bank - in the survey by Management Team, a Dutch business magazine. It came first for corporate reputation and was voted the business most of the 1,000 "movers and shakers" would want to work for or own shares in.
Some UK investors are likely to seize on the result as confirmation that the Dutch are not overly concerned by the crisis. The poll, however, closed in December, weeks before the company's crisis disclosures dented its good name.
A somewhat sheepish Shell spokesman collected the gong at an awards gathering in Amsterdam's plush Hilton Hotel on Wednesday. Henk Bonder, Royal Dutch/Shell spokesman, had clearly not lost his sense of humour when, according to the magazine's website, he told guests: "You can probably tell by my throaty rasp that I am a spokesman for Shell." He added, in reference to subsequent events: "I can assure you that Shell shall do everything possible to resolve its problems and work on its image. So, hopefully, until next year."