Goodwill is the only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.
Marshall FieldRead
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.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the importance of feedback and constructive criticism in improving one's service or business.
Marshall Field emphasizes that the opinions of customers play a crucial role in shaping and refining a business. While buyers support him and flatterers please him, it is the complaints that provide valuable insights into necessary improvements. Those who merely express dissatisfaction without offering feedback hinder progress by denying the opportunity for correction and enhancement in the service provided.
In practice
In a business meeting when discussing customer service strategies.
Goodwill is the only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.
Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all.
The concept of disruption is about competitive response; it is not a theory of growth. It's adjacent to growth. But it's not about growth.
There is only one winning strategy. It is to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market.
People are the core of every business. Businesses are based on relationships, and relationships are based on people. I would go to an average restaurant run by amazing people over an outstanding restaurant run by awful people.
Now that knowledge is taking the place of capital as the driving force in organizations worldwide, it is all too easy to confuse data with knowledge and information technology with information.
A great business has to have a conscience. You have to know who you are and who you are not.
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