Goodwill is the only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.
Interpretation
Goodwill is an intangible asset that represents the trust and reputation a company has, which cannot be easily replicated or diminished by competitors.
This quote by Marshall Field highlights the importance of goodwill as a valuable asset in business. It suggests that goodwill—built through strong relationships, trust, and a positive reputation—is something that cannot be easily matched or taken away by competitors, as it is rooted in the experiences and perceptions of customers. Unlike tangible assets, goodwill represents a company's unique character and the loyalty it cultivates with its clients, making it a formidable advantage in any competitive market.
In practice
In a business seminar discussing the importance of maintaining customer relationships, one could cite this quote to emphasize the value of goodwill.
Those who enter to buy, support me. Those who come to flatter, please me. Those who complain, teach me how I may please others so that more will come. Those only hurt me who are displeased but do not complain. They refuse me permission to correct my errors and thus improve my service.
Don't hesitate to seek external help or advice where need be. Sometimes, it takes an external, emotionally unattached individual to detect your business flaws and render unbiased advice.
Entrepreneurs say in an economic boom it's actually hard to build a company because everybody's too excited and there is too much money funding too many marginal companies.
Poor firms ignore their competitors; average firms copy their competitors; winning firms lead their competitors.
Large organizations don't worship shareholders or customers, they worship the past. If it were otherwise, it wouldn't take a crisis to set a company on a new path.
The most valuable assets of a 20th-century company were its production equipment. The most valuable assets of a 21st-century institution, whether business or nonbusiness, will be its knowledge, workers, and their productivity.
On the simplest level, telecommuting makes it harder for people to have the kinds of informal interactions that are crucial to the way knowledge moves through an organization. The role that hallway chat plays in driving new ideas has become a cliche of business writing, but that doesn't make it less true.
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