“Exclusive” business magazine presents the results of the fourth annual independent survey

Zarina Pakhirdinova

Companies’ reputations are built up over a long period of time and depend on many factors. It is a non-tangible asset that sometimes brings a very tangible return. Therefore, maintaining the proper level of reputation is one of the main tasks that managers of companies face in order to achieve success. A good image attracts new clients and partners, as well as ensuring the loyalty of existing customers, which can become a valuable feature in crisis situations. Reputation is formed based on the information about the activities of the company, obtained through the most trustworthy sources; the opinions of friends and one’s own experience.

Methodology of the survey. The survey was made in two stages. During the first stage many interviews, over a month, were taken from experts. These revealed 8 main factors that influence a company’s reputation and customers’ opinions on it.
During the second stage, an anonymous questionnaire was distributed among the respondents, which included specialists in various fields. The respondents had to put down any number of companies from any industry and assess the companies using a scale of 5 points, based on the criteria discovered during the first stage.
To obtain objective results, the questionnaires were collected in hard copies sealed into company envelops; this enabled the exclusion of respondents that voted for their own or daughter companies.

Summing up. The companies that were mentioned by the respondents the most number of times were included in the list. An average mark for each criterion was calculated, and the total mark for each candidate was defined.

Status of the respondents: directors of companies and deputy directors, members of boards of directors, top and middle managers, leading specialists.

Types of companies’: financial institutions, auditing and insurance firms, companies of oil and gas sector, large firms of merchandise and food industries, advertisement and PR agencies.

In total, 214 respondents took part in the survey, and more than 370 Kazakhstani and foreign companies working in Kazakhstan were mentioned. It is pleasant that the domestic companies have a numeral superiority, by a ratio of approximately 6:1, which indicated significant trust of Kazakhstani consumers towards domestic companies, and a thorough approach by the companies to the choice of image and reputation.

As usual, the highest ratings are assigned to financial institutions, with 18% among the first 50 companies. The second place is taken by the companies of the food industry, with a small difference; 17%. The third place is taken by merchandisers, with 13%. The manufacturing and oil and gas industries each have got 6%.

This year our team decided to separately consider some daughter companies, especially insurance companies, because, as the survey shows, they are increasingly seldomly associated with their mother companies, and often considered as fully formed independent players on the market.

For the third year in a row, the leader of our survey, by a large margin, is Kazkommerzbank, which obtained 55% of votes of all respondents in the current survey. Moreover, the positions of the bank among the companies are becoming stronger; last year 38.5% of respondents mentioned the bank.

The second place, with a gap of 15%, was taken by another financial giant, Bank TuranAlem. It gained 40% of the votes and a total average mark of 4.24. The monopoly of financial institutions over the top of the list was destroyed by “Foodmaster”, which took the third place. It became a leader among the food producers, overtaking the confectionary producer “Rakhat” and joint venture “Bekker and Co.”. The most interesting battle was the contest of two telecommunication companies; GSM Kazakhstan, with the trademarks Active and K-Cell, and Kar-Tel, with the products of Beeline and K-mobile. These firms obtained an equal number of votes and took 5th and 6th place respectively.

The 10% barrier was passed by 15 companies, including Alliance Bank, Kazakhtelekom, Astana motors, Halyk Bank, ATF Bank, KUAT Corporation, etc.

Out of eight criteria, the lowest average mark was corresponding to the level of business transparency, which was 3,47. The average marks of other criteria are not high either: 4,43 was the highest mark for the success on Kazakhstan’s market.

According to the survey, the opinions of most of the respondents regarding the reputation of the companies is based on their own experience of dealing with them. This was the response for 91% of the respondents. 65% also mentioned the mass media as their source of information, while the judgments of clients and partners were also taken into account.

So, the names of 50 companies that have the honour to be listed are announced. We would like to congratulate the winners and wish them to hold and increase the gained positions.