The company's score‚ 74.17‚ has improved by 6.64 points overall compared with its performance in last year's survey.
A significant increase in all seven of the reputation drivers used by the annual survey placed it ahead of Old Mutual‚ which came second with a score of 69.94. The seven reputation drivers used in the Reputation Institute's survey are products and services‚ innovation‚ performance‚ citizenship‚ workplace‚ governance and leadership.
Reputation Institute's Partner for Africa‚ Dr Dominik Heil says: "Vodacom's success appears to be grounded on its holistic application of a strategy across all areas of its business.
"This is apparent from Vodacom's consistent scores in all the reputation drivers. Interestingly‚ the leadership score increased by 3.75 points‚ coinciding with the change in leadership in the company‚ its innovation score increased by 8.05 points and its products and services by 8.5 points‚ thus indicating a shift in its focus on innovation and quality of service.
"These results show that a company cannot 'cherry-pick' what it should focus on. It should have a sound strategy in place that drives the business as a whole."
Trevor Ndlazi‚ Reputation Institute's country manager for South Africa added that the 2013 survey shows that while South Africans still emphasise products and services‚ innovation is becoming important. He says this factor has steadily increased over the past five years.
"South Africans want companies to innovate and respond to their specific needs. They are tired of companies 'recycling' goods and services. What's good or what works in one country does not necessarily mean it will meet the needs of South Africans," Ndlazi said.
The RepTrak™ Pulse survey measures the reputation of the largest listed South African companies based on revenue.
"For the first time‚ the survey was expanded to include mining companies as a result of the importance of this sector in the South African business context. This addition changed the list of companies appearing in the top 20‚ due to the change in the revenue average.
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