Advisory
Governance
Strategic Readiness
Preparing the brand for the moment that matters
A fund, an international partner, a high-profile talent. Before sitting down at the table, they look at the brand. We make sure they find solidity, coherence and governance. Before, during and after the decisive moment.
Every deal today includes
reputational due diligence
Traditional due diligence covers tax, legal and compliance. But today there is a second dimension that carries equal weight in high-level decisions: the perceived credibility of the brand, the management and the entire communications architecture.
Funds, multinationals, celebrities and international boards verify digital reputation, narrative consistency, leadership team presence, reputational risks and media exposure before signing. The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer recorded an unprecedented finding: 80% of people trust the brands they use more than governments, media and NGOs. Trust has become a measurable asset, and those who lose it pay in deals, valuation and access to partnerships.
According to analysis by Aon and Ponemon Institute, intangible assets, of which reputation is a central component, account for 84% of the value of companies in the S&P 500. A survey by Weber Shandwick found that global executives attribute on average 63% of their company’s market value to corporate reputation.
Companies today are overexposed but under-governed. They have content, social media, campaigns, ads, creators, PR. But they lack reputational control, consistency, narrative architecture, symbolic governance. And when someone looks in from the outside, a fund, a buyer, a high-profile partner, that gap becomes the reason the deal does not close.
84%
of S&P 500 value lies in intangible assets: IP, brand, reputation
80%
of people trust the brands they use more than institutions
50%+
of M&A deals fail due to insufficient due diligence
The signals
How to tell whether the brand is not ready to withstand scrutiny
These are the signals we see most often in companies approaching high-exposure moments without the necessary preparation. None of them is fatal in itself, but in combination they create a risk profile that investors, partners and top-tier talent know how to read.
The CEO has no structured public presence
LinkedIn absent or neglected, no recent interviews, no visible positioning. Anyone searching the founder’s name before a deal finds a void, or worse, uncontrolled content.
The brand is described differently by every source
The website says one thing, social media another, the press something else again. AI tools return fragmented or inaccurate information. What is missing is a narrative architecture that holds everything together.
There is no crisis protocol
No plan for managing sudden negative exposure. No designated spokesperson, no decision-making flow, no response template. When the crisis arrives, people improvise, and the Balenciaga case shows what happens when you improvise.
Communications governance depends on a single person
One person handles social media, press, relations and content. If that person leaves, the brand loses control of its own narrative. That is not governance; it is structural fragility.
The company does not know what AI says about it
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity: when an investor or partner asks “what do you know about [brand X]?”, the answer is already a form of due diligence. Most companies have never checked what comes back.
The brand has never undergone a reputational audit
No one has ever systematically mapped what people find when they search for the brand: press, social media, forums, reviews, AI sources, Google. If you have not done it, whoever sits on the other side of the table will.
The signals
How to tell whether the brand is not ready to withstand scrutiny
These are the signals we see most often in companies approaching high-exposure moments without the necessary preparation. None of them is fatal in itself, but in combination they create a risk profile that investors, partners and top-tier talent know how to read.
01
The CEO has no structured public presence
LinkedIn absent or neglected, no recent interviews, no visible positioning. Anyone searching the founder’s name before a deal finds a void, or worse, uncontrolled content.
02
The brand is described differently by every source
The website says one thing, social media another, the press something else again. AI tools return fragmented or inaccurate information. What is missing is a narrative architecture that holds everything together.
03
There is no crisis protocol
No plan for managing sudden negative exposure. No designated spokesperson, no decision-making flow, no response template. When the crisis arrives, people improvise, and the Balenciaga case shows what happens when you improvise.
The signals
How to tell whether the brand is not ready to withstand scrutiny
These are the signals we see most often in companies approaching high-exposure moments without the necessary preparation. None of them is fatal in itself, but in combination they create a risk profile that investors, partners and top-tier talent know how to read.
The CEO has no structured public presence
LinkedIn absent or neglected, no recent interviews, no visible positioning. Anyone searching the founder’s name before a deal finds a void, or worse, uncontrolled content.
The brand is described differently by every source
The website says one thing, social media another, the press something else again. AI tools return fragmented or inaccurate information. What is missing is a narrative architecture that holds everything together.
There is no crisis protocol
No plan for managing sudden negative exposure. No designated spokesperson, no decision-making flow, no response template. When the crisis arrives, people improvise, and the Balenciaga case shows what happens when you improvise.
Communications governance depends on a single person
One person handles social media, press, relations and content. If that person leaves, the brand loses control of its own narrative. That is not governance; it is structural fragility.
The company does not know what AI says about it
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity: when an investor or partner asks “what do you know about [brand X]?”, the answer is already a form of due diligence. Most companies have never checked what comes back.
The brand has never undergone a reputational audit
No one has ever systematically mapped what people find when they search for the brand: press, social media, forums, reviews, AI sources, Google. If you have not done it, whoever sits on the other side of the table will.
Reference cases
Reputation is the factor that has destroyed
billion-dollar deals.
Recent business history is full of cases in which weak governance, narrative inconsistency or a reputational crisis had enormous financial consequences, far more serious than a balance-sheet problem. Two emblematic cases illustrate the point.
WeWork
From $47 billion to under $10 billion in a matter of weeks
In 2019, WeWork was preparing for its IPO at a valuation of $47 billion. When the prospectus became public, investors and analysts discovered opaque governance, conflicts of interest involving founder Adam Neumann and a business model that could not withstand scrutiny. The valuation collapsed week after week, from 47 to 25, then 20, then 15, then 10 billion, until the IPO was withdrawn. Neumann was removed from the helm. In 2023, WeWork filed for bankruptcy.
It was not a problem of numbers: it was a problem of perception, governance and management credibility. The Corporate Governance Institute calls it “a definitive governance debacle”. Fortune noted that, for the first time, investors weighed governance risks on a par with financial fundamentals.
Governance & IPO
Balenciaga
One wrong campaign, a brand in free fall
In November 2022, Balenciaga, at the time the most coveted brand in the world according to the Lyst Index, released an advertising campaign that triggered a global reputational crisis. Within days the brand plummeted from first to eighteenth place in the Lyst Index. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian publicly distanced themselves. The brand’s slow and inconsistent response amplified the damage.
Kering, the parent holding company, reported a significant decline in Q4 2022 attributed directly to the crisis. Balenciaga, which had been on track to exceed €1 billion in revenue, took over a year to regain lost ground. The Fashion Law documented the entire timeline. The lesson: a brand without communications governance and without a crisis plan is exposed to losses that no balance sheet can foresee.
Reputational crisis
Traditional due diligence
protects capital.
We protect trust.
Brands preparing for high-exposure moments
We work with companies, founders and leadership teams going through phases in which the brand comes under scrutiny. Fundraising, extraordinary transactions, international expansion, high-profile partnerships or growing public exposure demand a credible presence and a perception aligned with the level of the opportunities at stake.
In these contexts, those assessing the company do not look only at performance and figures. They look at the management, the brand’s positioning, the quality of communication and the way the company presents itself to the market.
It is often in that perception that trust is built, or distance created.
Companies fundraising or preparing for M&A
Investment rounds, acquisitions, divestments, the entry of strategic partners. Whoever assesses the company will look at the brand before the balance sheet.
Brands seeking licensing or celebrity endorsement
Collaborations with talent, international brands, high-profile properties. A talent with millions of followers will not attach their name to a brand that looks improvised.
Management teams that must present to international boards
Expansion, joint ventures, entry into global networks or groups. The CEO is the first touchpoint: their public presence will be scrutinised.
Businesses aiming to scale retail or distribution
Entry into international chains, premium marketplaces, new markets. The question is: “is the brand ready to sit at the table with Nike, LVMH or Ronaldo?”
Founders with growing public exposure
Interviews, conferences, media, LinkedIn: when the person becomes the brand, reputational risk becomes personal.
Italian SMEs with international ambitions
Product excellence but weak communications governance, a fragmented digital presence, and a narrative not structured for international counterparts.