Most Respected Corporations 2009

We asked you what companies you admired most in six different categories. Here’s what you told us – and the good reasons these names serve as models

If corporate reputation is important in the good times, it’s doubly so in the bad. With companies faltering left and right, stakeholders including employees, customers, investors and suppliers need extra reassurance of a firm’s soundness, sustainability and ethical conduct. For the first time since it began measuring the value of the world’s top 100 brands a decade ago, New York-based Interbrand found that their combined value fell by 4.6% to US$1.15 trillion over the past year. The decliners included six of the top 10 brands. If there is a defining characteristic of well-regarded firms, it’s “genuine attention to all stakeholders,” says David Deephouse, associate professor of strategic management and organization at the University of Alberta School of Business. People understand that companies have to make hard decisions in the hard times, but “when everybody shares in the pain and the gain,” the goodwill tied up in the company’s reputation can be maintained. So which Alberta-based organizations come off looking especially good following the economic trauma of the last 14 months? Read on.

Seeing Markets as Communities

When looking to make a meaningful investment in the community, “one of the reasons corporations choose Habitat for Humanity is because they can do more than cut a cheque,” says Andrew MacLachlan, president and CEO of the charity’s Calgary affiliate. “They can mobilize their workforce to help our workforce.”

That’s what ATB Financial did in helping Amina Ofleh, a single mother of six who immigrated to Canada from Somalia in 1990, achieve what MacLachlan calls “the stability of home.” Thanks to ATB’s donation of $110,000 for materials and 1,600 hours of volunteer labour, the Oflehs now reside in a new northeast Calgary duplex, the result of a Habitat build completed this spring.

Since the 2007 arrival of president and CEO David Mowat (who previously ran Vancity Savings, a credit union known for its social conscience), this kind of ground-level involvement has come to define the company’s community involvement. “He challenged us to find a way to demonstrate that commitment to Albertans in a way that we weren’t able to previously,” says Shawn Ohler, ATB’s director of external and media relations.

Supporting Amina Ofleh’s family is just one response to that challenge. ATB’s decade-old Teddy for a Toonie campaign is another, raising $3 million to date for the Stollery and Alberta Children’s hospital foundations. So is its sponsorship of Canmore’s Sara Renner, the Olympic cross-country skier. And the door is open to more. Wearealberta.ca, the website Ohler launched Sept. 1 – the province’s 104th birthday – to “celebrate Alberta stories” like Ofleh’s, serves as a point of contact for other Albertans seeking support for community-building efforts.

“Our whole goal is to be more knowledgeable about Albertans,” says Ohler, “and to be more committed to Albertans. It’s part of the mandate from 70-plus years ago; we were put here to support Albertans at a time when perhaps they couldn’t find that support from other institutions. That idea is more resonant than ever today.”

If corporate social responsibility is, in essence, about being a contributing member of communities that support you, “you’re getting that engagement from the ATB community,” says Andrew MacLachlan. “You can’t get that everywhere.”

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