This article describes corporate reputation as it pertains to corporate practice. Key areas treated are worldwide executive opinion on their ability to affect corporate reputation; three specific strategic benefits and goals of strong corporate reputation (preference in doing business with a company when products/services are similar, support for a company in time of controversy, and company value in the financial marketplace); the six key factors that drive corporate reputation; examples of how these drivers vary in importance in different countries, in different industries in the same country, and in the context of the three different goals; and illustrations of how company behaviour, relative to public expectations, can erode corporate reputation. Credibility is cited as the central link between company behaviour and public confidence, also encompassing the “promise/performance gap” between consumer expectations and product/service delivery.