Architect · Brand Strategist · Founder, Reputation Survey

Twenty-five years building
the one system reputation
actually needs.

Most organisations manage their most valuable asset — their reputation — with no system at all. I built one that works.

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Reputation Survey is the best and most straightforward way to manage your brand systematically.

Peter Ankerstjerne · Chief Marketing Officer · ISS

The story

From logos
to trust.

I started as a brand architect — designing the visual identities of organizations. Early in my career, a client stopped me with a question I have never forgotten.

"I'd buy one of your logos. Maybe two. But first, tell me how much money I'll make from it."

That question sent me from aesthetics into strategy, from logos into promises — and eventually into a twenty-five-year investigation into why some organizations are trusted and others are not.

The answer is not complicated. The organizations that are trusted are the ones that say what they mean and mean what they say — in every interaction, with every person who touches them.

The difficulty is not understanding this. The difficulty is measuring it. And then managing it.

That is what I built.

"Actions speak louder than logos. What happens when a truck driver proudly sports your brand-new logo — then drives recklessly?"

1990s

Brand architecture

Visual identity and brand strategy for Scandinavian organisations. The question shifts from how a brand looks to what a brand means.

Early 2000s

Bureau Veritas

Working with the world's leading quality certification body revealed the insight that would define everything: reputation is a quality system, not a feeling.

2004–2009

Academic foundation

Research partnerships with Copenhagen Business School, London Business School, University of Technology Sydney, University of Westminster, and Griffith University.

2009–today

Reputation Survey

The methodology tested and deployed at ISS, Maersk Line, PwC, Norwegian, Montana, and Fredericia Furniture. Now ready to scale.

The numbers

92% of market value
is intangible.

In 1975, factories, machinery, and inventory made up 83% of the S&P 500's market value. By 2025 that number has inverted almost completely. Today 92% of what the world's most valuable companies are worth exists only in the minds of customers, employees, investors, and partners.

That is reputation. And most organisations manage it with no system at all.

83%
17%
1975
68%
32%
1985
32%
68%
1995
20%
80%
2005
16%
84%
2015
8%
92%
2025
Tangible assets Intangible assets

Source: Ocean Tomo — Components of S&P 500 Market Value, 1975–2025

"As the perspective is changing from a value chain logic to a new dominant logic — companies realize that brand makes up more than half of their market value. The fact that brand is the primary asset when it comes to attracting and retaining clients, staff, investors and partners demands new tools."

— Henrik Gabriel

The problem

The gap
nobody sees.

I want to tell you about a reception desk. It belongs to a company you would recognize. In a survey, we asked their managers to rate how well the reception experience reflected the company's promise. The managers gave it 3.1 out of 4. They were proud of it.

Then we asked the customers the same question. They gave it 3.8.

But here is what the data also showed: the management score — the degree to which the process was documented, trained, and consistently executed — was 2.3.

↑ Managers    ↑ Customers

Reception experience
3.1Mgmt
3.8Client
Communication clarity
4.1Mgmt
2.9Client
Service consistency
3.8Mgmt
2.6Client
People & attitude
4.3Mgmt
4.1Client
2.3

Management score. A score below 3.5 means the good experience is delivered by exceptional individuals — not a reliable system. You are one resignation away from it collapsing.

"Poorly managed activities cause dissatisfied customers and employees alike. The gap just hasn't shown up yet."

I have conducted this kind of survey at ISS, Maersk Line, PwC, Norwegian, and dozens of other organisations across industries and countries. In almost every case, the gap exists. In almost every case, nobody knew.

Not because the leaders were careless. Because they had no instrument to see it.

A doctor does not guess at a patient's blood pressure. A pilot does not assume the fuel is adequate. They measure. Reputation is no different.

The instrument exists.

The methodology

A recipe,
not a guessing game.

Working with Bureau Veritas — the global quality certification body, trusted with verifying the safety of ships, buildings, and industrial systems worldwide since 1828 — I understood something at a professional level that I had long believed intuitively: reputation is a quality system. It can be managed with the same rigour as manufacturing quality, financial quality, or environmental quality. It can be certified. It can be improved. Year on year. Department by department.

Built on ISO standards. Compatible with existing management systems. Comparable over time and across markets.

01

Define the promise

A workshop to identify the operational promise and map the landscape of activities that shape it — every touchpoint where the promise is either kept or broken.

02

Run the survey

Ask the same questions to two groups: your people, and the people they serve. Across communication, people, and services. Internal versus external — side by side. Weeks, not months.

03

Close the gap

A workshop to review findings and act. No interpretation required. The data tells you exactly where to focus. The gap is your agenda.

Proven in practice

Six organisations.
One conclusion.

ISS, Maersk Line, PwC, Norwegian, Montana, and Fredericia Furniture did not just get better survey data. They got the ability to make decisions about reputation the way they make decisions about revenue: based on facts, not feelings.

Facilities Management

ISS

Global rollout across multiple markets. Benchmark established across 500,000+ employees.

Shipping & Logistics

Maersk Line

Brand promise mapped across every customer-facing touchpoint globally.

Professional Services

PwC Denmark

Gap identified between partner perception and client experience. Systematic action followed.

Aviation

Norwegian

Internal and external reputation measured across all customer touchpoints in Scandinavia.

Furniture Design

Montana

Brand promise aligned with product experience and retail communication.

Premium Furniture

Fredericia Furniture

Reputation measured across trade partners and end customers for the first time.

References

Selected clients across
twenty-five years.

Work delivered across strategy, visual identity, naming, reputation management, teaching, print, web, and more.

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Three ways to start

The thinking is done.
The tool is built.
What remains is you.

I work with a small number of organisations each year and give those engagements my full attention. A conversation costs nothing.

01

Take the 2-minute test

Seven questions. An immediate read on how well your organisation is managing its reputation. The gap between your score and a colleague's is where the real conversation begins.

karpias.com/management →
02

Run a free survey

Send a short survey to people inside and outside your organisation. Three questions — communication, people, services. Results in real time, internal versus external, side by side.

KARPIAS.com/free →
03

Reach out directly

I work with a small number of organisations each year and give those engagements my full attention. A conversation costs nothing.

h@henrikgabriel.com →
Take the test — 2 minutes Write to me