The new translation arrived in China at the same time as another book, Essentials of Corporate Communication, co-written by the same author. Both books were translated by Dr Matthew S. Pan, partner and managing director for Greater China at the Reputation Institute, co-founded by Cees van Riel.
The Alignment Factor, originally published in 2012 and available in English as well as Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese, explains how an organisation can build long-term relationships with all stakeholders, and examines the position of the communication professional and alignment in practice. Van Riel argues that it is difficult to overstate the importance of creating a favourable impression in any walk of life. In business, a favourable impression is vital in order to achieve strategic goals. Customers, journalists, bloggers, investors, governments and other groups are all important stakeholders in an organisation’s performance and can be kept as supporters by persuasively communicating a company's ethical and socially responsible behaviour.
Essentials of Corporate Communication, first published in 2007, helps readers not only to understand, but also to apply, the most important theoretical notions on identity, identification, reputation and corporate branding, it illustrates how communicating with a company’s key audience depends upon all of the company’s internal and external communication.
Translator Matthew Pan said: “It has long been my wish, since joining the Reputation Institute, to publish these two books in Chinese. Together with the Corporate Reputation Review, they have been my best learning resources for corporate reputation research and consulting. I believe the publications lay a solid foundation for learning management science and the practice of corporate reputation in China.”
According to Cees van Riel, the translation of these two books to Chinese will help companies in China to become acquainted with the newest insights in reputation management. “Accepting the reputation management philosophy will increase their ‘license to operate’ inside and outside China.”