Reputation as an Asset Class

Reputation is often treated as something soft and qualitative. Look at it through a 90-day PolecatX lens, and it starts to behave much more like an asset class, with its own cycles, shocks, and recovery phases.

In early autumn, sentiment around BlackRock was strongly positive. Coverage focused on its potential 38 billion dollar acquisition of US utility AES through Global Infrastructure Partners, reinforcing a story of scale and strategic positioning in the energy transition. At the same time, the firm’s iShares Bitcoin Trust was reported as one of BlackRock’s most profitable product lines, giving investors a clear innovation and fee-income narrative. Equity performance was strong, and the reputation “asset” was clearly accretive in this period.

Through late October and November, the picture changed. PolecatX highlights a cluster of negative, high-impact events: record outflows from the flagship bitcoin ETF, a broader crypto pullback, and renewed scrutiny of BlackRock’s stance after leaving the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. Sentiment deteriorated and the share price weakened in parallel. 

The most interesting phase comes later. As news around product expansion, tokenisation initiatives, and external assessments of the ETF franchise turned more constructive, sentiment began to recover while the stock price stayed subdued. Investors appeared to be focused on macro and valuation headwinds, even as the conversation around platform strength and long-term positioning improved. In effect, reputation started to act as a leading indicator of repairing confidence.

Another example comes from Apple. Early autumn started as a familiar story: a flagship iPhone 17 launch, strong brand heat, and a still-dominant ecosystem. Under the surface, Polecat’s intelligence cut told a different story. Reputation event scores weakened across several core drivers in quick succession. The iPhone 17 launch attracted criticism over pricing and immature AI features. A senior AI and search executive departed from a strategically critical team. An EEOC lawsuit raised questions about the fair treatment of employees. Privacy and data-access concerns resurfaced with UK and French scrutiny of Apple’s cloud and Siri practices. Analyst sentiment slid to a five-year low as brokers questioned Apple’s AI readiness and downgraded the stock.

None of these headlines is unusual on its own. What matters is the clustering, the source quality, and the direction of travel. Across September and early October, Apple’s aggregated reputation signal deteriorated first. The share price then followed, with the stock falling in the days after the negative cluster and the key downgrade. In other words, reputation moved first and valuation repriced next.

By scoring individual events and grouping them into themes such as innovation readiness, employee treatment, and data stewardship, boards and investors can see in real time where a company’s licence to operate is strengthening or eroding. When that signal deteriorates, as it did for Apple, it can become a forward indicator of share-price vulnerability. Reputation stops being a soft concept and becomes a measurable, managed asset in the portfolio.