How South Africans rate reputation of business sectors
The banners are announcing that it is now '2000 and thrive'... Last week, the world's largest credit ratings agency, Moody's Investors Service, upgraded the country's investment rating so there is an air of optimism in South Africa, but how do South Africans rate the reputation of institutions such as our healthcare, banking, political parties, mail services, business locations, financial/banking outlets and supermarkets.
Research Surveys' affiliate company, TNS, a leading global market information provider (listed on the LSE) today released the results of a global corporate reputation study. The study measured perceptions of more than 36 000 people across 40 countries.
Using TRI*M, TNS's leading Business Solution for Stakeholder Management, the findings show that in South Africa supermarkets, telephone providers (Telkom) and banks score high compared to international benchmarks, with SA's supermarkets ranking 1st globally, SA's telephone provider 2nd and SA's banks 3rd in their respective categories. These results indicate the sophistication and first world status of these industries in South Africa. Although the ranking of our telephone provider should be seen in the light of the study being conducted telephonically and thus only among people who have access to a landline telephone.
Political parties and health services fare less well compared to their international peers and are ranked 32nd and 21st respectively. Clearly, there is some work to be done in these sectors to meet the public's expectations.
Overall however, the (mainly) public managed sector 'Health Service' has a very low reputation in all countries, with European countries showing, on average a lower reputation level than Asia Pacific and America. Similarly, with even lower scores, political parties do not meet the expectations of citizens, and rank poorly in both the dimensions of emotional appeal and competence in TNS TRI*M reputation index.
In terms of the country as a business location, South Africa ranks 6th globally. What is interesting is that most European countries rate their respective country poorly as a business location compared to the US and Asia Pacific. This reflects people's internal perception of their country's economic situation and expectation for the future. It also shows the impact that the recent trend in outsourcing of services (such as call centres) to other countries has had on public opinion.
