It is more important than ever for business communications to be honest and fair

• Reduce Reputational Risk

• Improve Straight Talk

Companies believed to be dishonest in their marketing or PR lose the trust of consumers, investors and regulators.  Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, Facebook and Kobe Steel have all discovered how devastating even the perception of untruthfulness can be to a business reputation.  Internally, colleagues who distort the truth weaken team collaboration, while those who don’t recognize how truth can be manipulated leave their companies vulnerable to misinformation.  

Hector Macdonald is the author of Truth: How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape our Reality, a major new book that investigates how truth is used and abused in professional communications.  Based on his extensive research for the book, Hector has developed a truth audit to evaluate any corporate communication, including marketing, employee engagement, investor relations and PR messaging.  Where a communications audit typically assesses the effectiveness of corporate communications, a truth audit assesses their honesty.  

The audit examines not only whether messages are technically true but also how fairly they represent reality.  The following misleading forms of truth will be flagged:

The truth audit is a confidential management tool, designed to help leaders reduce reputational risk and improve straight talk and collaboration between colleagues.  Results will not be made public.