Softening image of American companies.

• Position: Corporate Diplomacy

In order to soften America's image around the world, U.S. corporations must become de facto diplomats representing the nation, suggests The Conference Board, New York.

"It would be foolish to hope for a surge of good feeling toward U.S. foreign policy anytime soon from Europeans and Canadians, but U.S. companies can't afford to let public opinion toward them deteriorate further," urges The Conference Board's Gail Dutton. "It's time to start thinking about corporate diplomacy and taking the lead in improving views of American companies and, along the way, America itself."

The situation is far from hopeless. U.S. firms have enormous power to counter negative sentiments. A week after the South Asian tsunami, a poll of 20,000 consumers worldwide by the Seattle-based market research company GMI found 59% so pleased with American corporations' relief efforts that their impressions of those companies' brands improved.

Negative perceptions of the U.S. took at least two decades to materialize, driven by controversial and sometimes-belligerent foreign policy and encroaching globalization heralded by iconic brands such as McDonald's and Starbucks. These perceptions will take at least as long...