Reputation is the most expensive asset to build and the easiest to lose. Governance gives this reputation as it transforms principles into daily practice, with processes, controls and accountability that make the company’s behavior predictable. They do not appear in the balance, but guide price, access to capital and social license to operate. In Brazil, where family control companies predominate, the value of governance still divides opinions. Part of the market see it as a value lever; Another portion still treats it as a cost or bureaucracy.
In bonanza periods, the market is often more benevolent with those who do not prioritize governance. When the cycle turns, scrutiny increases. As Alessandra Gadelha notes, a two -decades counselor in finance and laughs in homes such as spring, Enauta and Mills, today in Vale and Eletrobras Tax Councils, this dynamic is not theory. It is repeated whenever processes and evidence is lacking capable of sustaining the narrative in difficult times.
From the advice room, the antidote is pragmatic. Governance is not checklist. Without adherence to everyday life, committees and policies saw decorative pieces. “Transparency is not ornament, it’s method,” says Alessandra. Method means decision rites, documentation, metrics and accountability that survive personal agendas and management exchanges. It also means active listening. Pressure for sustainability reports already requires mapping materiality with investors, customers, employees and suppliers. Reputational gain comes when this listening comes out of the PDF and goes into strategic priority.
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Another essential piece is the diversity of skills. Not as a flag, but as a mechanism to reduce biases and enrich the debate. “The diversity that changes the room is that of experiences and skills,” says Alessandra. When distinct trajectories look at the same problem, risks and opportunities arise that the homogeneous group does not see. Reputation also protects itself, raising the quality of deliberation before the market needs to “discover” blind spots.
Losing reputation is easy. A slide, or a badly interpreted well-meaning act, can erode it. Governance is the central tool of this management, reinforces Alessandra. “It is not enough to deliver results. In good performance phases, tolerance increases, but this does not replace processes, evidence and accountability.”
The first step is to recognize that improve governance raises the value of the company and, consequently, the assets. There is no magic formula. It is made with transparency, active listening and clear routines that define roles and responsibilities.
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In the end, reputation management is discipline, not speech. Companies that deliver coherence results, which seem and prove what they are, build a trusted mattress to cross crises and cycles. There is no “maximum level” of governance; There is constancy. Processes generate predictability and respect for different audiences. It is from this matter that is made reputation, and it is that, silently, multiplies value in the long run.
