Image is everything. At least, you could be forgiven for thinking that, given the way some companies choose to operate. Nowhere was this more apparent than during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. As Prof. Anjan Thakor says in this month’s column about taking a company public, many of those dot-coms saw an IPO the same way a spoiled teenager sees a Sweet 16 party – massive amounts of recognition for very little actual achievement.

Without presuming to speak for all of those bright-eyed Internet entrepreneurs who promised to change the way people bought socks or groceries or pet food “forever,” many of their IPOs seemed more like publicity stunts than earnest attempts to strengthen the foundation of their companies. Obviously, in this case, thinking in terms of image caused them to lose sight of the more important things.

One of the most common things we hear from the executives we profile is that they want to be “the best, not the biggest.” Sometimes, the two are one and the same, because the best deserve to be the biggest. For the vast majority, though, it’s not. However, it’s a healthy attitude to want your company to be better-known for service and quality than the ubiquity of your logo or brand name.

Too many of the dot-coms, on the other hand, believed that the novelty of doing business on your home computer, a sock-puppet spokesperson and a write-up about going public were what was needed to push them into the upper reaches of success.

For companies suffering through an image problem, I would suggest reading Kathryn Jones’ Get Real column this month, which deals with how you can use the way others see you to your advantage. You’re probably not considering an IPO just to get your name in the newspapers, but odds are you might be surprised to find out what your customers are saying about you when they think you’re not listening.