19 February 2010
	ENTREPRENEUR Image handler By Matebello Motloung

Investment guru Warren Buffett once said: "If you lose dollars for the firm, I will be understanding . . . If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless." Advising companies on how to build and preserve their reputation is what Jo'burg-based Vuma Reputation Management does. Founder and CEO Janine Hills, a former head of corporate affairs for FNB, has built Vuma into a reputation management and crisis communications specialist whose clients include FNB cellphone banking, Stanlib, Telkom and Anglo Coal. Vuma's media training programme has been attended by over 800 executives, half of them CEOs. Vuma aims to help them see communication as a tool to convey the company ethos to staff and the public - sometimes during a crisis. So what does Hills think of Toyota' s handling of its image when it had to recall millions of cars? CEO Janine Hills "The company has done well. The best thing to do in a reputation crisis is to be available to the media and to consumers, and to answer the difficult questions, and it has done this," Hills says. Vuma also assists firms in public-private partnership to align their interests with government's development goals. In January, the firm acquired a 26% black empowerment partner and MD in Khumo Mohlamme, formerly with Telkom, Eskom and the department of trade & industry.