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Robert Govers

Goodreads Author

Born

in The Hague, Netherlands

Website

https://www.rgovers.com

Twitter

rgovers

Genre

Nonfiction

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March 2013

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Robert Govers is the author of IMAGINATIVE COMMUNITIES: Admired cities, regions and countries. Since 2009 Robert has co-edited and authored four books on the topic of community reputation with Palgrave Macmillan publishers. IMAGINATIVE COMMUNITIES is his first book published under his own imprint. He has also co-authored over 50 journal articles, book chapters and conference papers and has delivered numerous public speeches and business publications. In addition, he is co-editor of the quarterly journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy.

Robert Govers is an independent international adviser, scholar, speaker and author on the reputation of cities, regions and countries and is chairman of the International Place Branding Association. He ha Robert Govers is the author of IMAGINATIVE COMMUNITIES: Admired cities, regions and countries. Since 2009 Robert has co-edited and authored four books on the topic of community reputation with Palgrave Macmillan publishers. IMAGINATIVE COMMUNITIES is his first book published under his own imprint. He has also co-authored over 50 journal articles, book chapters and conference papers and has delivered numerous public speeches and business publications. In addition, he is co-editor of the quarterly journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy.

Robert Govers is an independent international adviser, scholar, speaker and author on the reputation of cities, regions and countries and is chairman of the International Place Branding Association. He has also been an adjunct or visiting scholar at Tsinghua University, Beijing; the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; the University of Leuven, Belgium; Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands; Loughborough University London Campus; IULM University Milano, Italy; and several institutes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He also teaches place branding on the UNESCO World Heritage at Work Master’s programme in Torino, Italy.

Robert typically advises in areas such as place identity, image, reputation, economic competitiveness, tourism policy and strategy, educational policy, tourism and investment promotion, and major international events. This is approached from a strategic reputation management perspective, which is based on the premise that places build reputation by what they do and not by what they say.

Robert has held positions in South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He has been involved in many consultancy projects and advisory boards for reputable organisations such as the International Air Transport Association, the European Commission and various ministries, tourism promotion boards, and regional and city administrations.

Robert has both a doctoral (2005) and master’s degree (1995) from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, the Netherlands. ...more

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Robert Govers That is quite a funny anecdote, actually. Believe it or not, but it was Frank Underwood, POTUS in House of Cards, who triggered me to write this book;…moreThat is quite a funny anecdote, actually. Believe it or not, but it was Frank Underwood, POTUS in House of Cards, who triggered me to write this book; quite literally. In episode 8 of season 3, Underwood defends daring new policy that he invented. He explains to the bystander behind the camera – i.e. us, the audience, in the way that is so typical for this Netflix series – that in order to attract attention leaders need to come up with imaginative initiatives. They need to do things in an original, extraordinary, inventive and captivating manner. It is not so easy to do that, Underwood explains. He tells us that ‘imagination is its own form of courage’.

To venture into unchartered territory, which – by definition – is what imaginative initiatives are about, requires real courage. Underwood also explains that policy makers usually prefer to do things that are tried and tested and easy to defend with common sense, but he then intimates to the audience that “there is only one problem with common sense… it is so common”.

Underwood made me see that this is one of the key issues with managing city/country image. I have argued many times before that reputation is built on action and not advertising and to stand out is to do something extraordinary. However, policy makers are often risk averse, because of pressures from the opposition or public opinion and the motivation to cling onto power and not stick their neck out too much.

Hence it should not really surprise us that very few communities have been able to launch truly imaginative initiatives that have changed the way in which they are perceived internationally. Such examples are few and far between, but I describe some of them in the book. Yet, from a policy making perspective, to do imaginative things in line with long term strategy in order to build a consistent positioning is even harder.

I have been very frustrated with the lack of recognition of the complexity of this field of “community reputation management”. It is too easily and too often pushed into the marketing domain, which is counterproductive.

Without senior government support and courage; recognition of the need to see this as a perspective to policy making more than anything else; as an overarching task; requiring collaboration between government departments, private sector and civil society; and a long term commitment; there is no hope in hell of ever cliches and stereotypes.

I wrote Imaginative Communities in the hope of moving this specialist field into the mainstream. To convince policy makers, civil leaders and decision makers generally that community reputation management is a serious challenge and requires everyone’s attention.

I wrote a completely jargon-free book in easy-to-read language using only 35,000 words (150 pages) in order to provide bed-time reading; digestible because of lots of examples, cases and little theory.(less)

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Robert Govers’s books

Average rating: 4.24 · 25 ratings · 6 reviews · 10 distinct works

	Imaginative Communities: Admired cities, regions and countries 4.38 avg rating — 16 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Place Branding: Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities, Constructed, Imagined and Experienced by Robert Govers (Goodreads Author), F. Go 3.88 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2009 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	International Place Branding Yearbook 2012: Managing Smart Growth & Sustainability by Frank M. Go, Robert Govers (Goodreads Author) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2012 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	International Place Branding Yearbook 2011: Managing Reputational Risk by Frank Go, Robert Govers (Goodreads Author) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2011 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Imaginative Communities: Ciudades, regiones y países admirados by Robert Govers (Goodreads Author), Jordi de San Eugenio Vela 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2018 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Imaginative Communities: Cidades, Regiões E Países Admirados by Robert Govers (Goodreads Author), Caio Esteves 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2018 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	International Place Branding Yearbook 2010: Place Branding in the New Age of Innovation by Frank Go, Robert Govers (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2010 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	5th Annual Conference International Place Branding Association by José Fernández Cavia, Robert Govers (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	International Place Branding Yearbook 2011: Managing Reputational Risk by Frank M. Go, Robert Govers (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	[International Place Branding Yearbook 2011: Managing Reputational Risk] [Author: Go, F.] [September, 2011] by Frank M. Go, Robert Govers (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Driving cars through Europe and the Sahara Desert to sell them in Niger (1989 and 1990) and exploring China and Russia on the Trans-Siberia Express (1992) as a student, I quickly realised that what we think we know about the world is very superficial, cliché, and stereotype. This made me embark on a PhD supervised by Erasmus University Rotterdam professor Frank M. Go (may he rest in peace). To him

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U.S. National Strategy for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication

by Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy Policy Coordinating Committee (PCC)

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May 29, 2019 12:18AM

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Robert Govers and 1 other person liked Neil Krikul's review of The Road to Hell: How purposeful business leads to bad marketing and a worse world. And how human creativity is the way out.:

"I'm giving this book a high rating not because I entirely agree with it, but because it does present compelling points against 'purpose' in the corporate world.

Like many purpose and impact-driven individuals, I was put off when I came across Nick ini" Read more of this review »