Why Phl corporate boards must be rebuilt for the Age of Reputation

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Walk into most corporate boardrooms today and the profile is still largely familiar. Finance anchors the discussion. Legal watches risk. Operations speaks efficiency. Strategy focuses on growth. In family-led corporations, ownership representation is often decisive. Independent directors are typically drawn from retired executives, lawyers, bankers or regulators.

This board design reflects an older business logic, one where value was protected mainly through compliance, capital discipline and operational control. Reputation was assumed to be the by-product of good performance. Communication was treated as a support function.

That logic no longer holds.

In today’s environment, companies do not lose value only because of weak earnings or flawed strategy. They lose value because trust collapses. Reputation now shapes regulatory behavior, investor confidence, employee engagement and consumer loyalty. It determines how fast a crisis escalates and whether recovery is possible. Yet despite this reality, most boards still govern as if reputation can be managed after decisions are made.

This is precisely why communication and reputation management experts now belong in the boardroom.

Not as spokespersons.

Not as crisis firefighters.

But as governors of trust.

Some global companies have already taken this step, quietly but deliberately.

One of the clearest examples is ExxonMobil, which appointed Karen Hughes to its board. Hughes is not an engineer or financier. She is a career communication and public affairs professional, having served as a senior counselor in the White House and later as a global leader at Burson-Marsteller. Her expertise lies in public sentiment, political narrative and stakeholder trust. ExxonMobil’s decision to seat a communications professional at board level was widely read as an acknowledgment that in a politically exposed, climate scrutinized industry, reputation is not peripheral risk. It is governance risk.

This was not symbolic diversity. It was functional necessity.

In highly regulated sectors, the same logic applies. Global banks such as HSBC have strengthened board oversight of conduct, culture and reputation by appointing directors whose careers were shaped by public affairs, regulatory communication, and institutional trust. While not labeled as “PR directors,” these appointments reflect an understanding that financial controls alone cannot restore credibility once trust is broken.

The communications industry itself has also produced board level governors beyond its own sector. Senior figures from global agency holding companies such as Omnicom Group have served on boards outside the communications sector precisely because of their expertise in stakeholder ecosystems, narrative risk, and crisis dynamics. Their value is not creative execution, but judgment under scrutiny.

These examples matter because they signal a shift in how boards define competence. Communication and reputation professionals are trained to anticipate how decisions will be interpreted across fragmented publics. They understand that silence communicates, delay amplifies suspicion, and inconsistency erodes credibility. They are skilled at reading weak signals before issues metastasize into crises.

Nowhere is this more relevant than in the Philippine business environment.

Philippine companies operate in a uniquely volatile ecosystem. Public opinion is highly emotive and digitally amplified. Social media outrage moves faster than internal escalation processes. Congressional inquiries are often triggered by headlines rather than findings. Regulators respond not only to violations, but to public pressure. In this context, reputational crises rarely remain isolated. A consumer issue can quickly morph into a labor controversy, a political issue, or an investor confidence problem.

Yet most Philippine boards remain structurally ill equipped for this reality.

Board seats are still dominated by finance, law, family representation, and industry insiders. Communication and reputation expertise is typically brought in only after a problem erupts, often through consultants who were never part of the original decision. By then, narratives have hardened and trust has already eroded.

This is not conservative governance. It is delayed governance.

Communication and reputation management experts bring a different kind of intelligence into the boardroom. They stress test decisions not only for legality and profitability, but for legitimacy. They ask questions that are often missed. How will this decision be framed publicly? Who will feel excluded or harmed? Which stakeholders will mobilize first? How will silence be interpreted? What happens if this leaks tomorrow, not next quarter?

These are not cosmetic concerns. They are early warning systems.

In the Philippines, where trust in institutions is uneven and skepticism toward power runs deep, these questions are central to corporate survival. Boards that underestimate reputational dynamics often find themselves technically correct but socially indefensible. And once public trust collapses, no amount of post crisis messaging can fully restore it.

There is also an investor dimension. As environmental, social, and governance expectations rise, investors increasingly assess governance maturity, stakeholder management, and reputational resilience. Boards that cannot demonstrate credible oversight of reputation risk will struggle to attract long term capital.

This is why the time has come to redesign Philippine corporate boards.

Not by displacing financial or legal expertise, but by complementing it. Boards need directors whose primary professional discipline is communication, public affairs, and reputation management. These are not support functions anymore. They are governance disciplines.

The board of the future will not be defined solely by who controls capital or compliance. It will be defined by who understands legitimacy.

The question Philippine companies must now confront is simple. In an age where trust moves markets and outrage triggers regulation, can boards still claim to govern responsibly without someone trained to govern trust itself?

If the answer is no, then board reform is no longer optional. It is overdue.

*Dr. Ron F. Jabal,  APR, is the CEO of PAGEONE Group (www.pageonegroup.ph)  (www.pageonegroup.ph)  and the Founder and President  of the Reputation Management Association of the Philippines (www.rmap.org.ph). Please correspond to [email protected] or [email protected]