2020

There was once a Shepherd-boy who watched over a flock of sheep near a village. Three or four times, he brought out all the villagers by crying “Help me! The wolf is attacking!” But when his neighbours came to help him, he laughed at them saying, “Haha there is no Wolf. I was only tricking you!” The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in agony and in terror: “Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the sheep!” Yet, no one paid any attention to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no reason to fear, at his leisure, destroyed the whole flock. There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth. Mr. Boakye and I were having lunch with a few others when the names of two prominent businessmen came up in conversation. They were not the topic of our discussions, mind you. At the mention of the Honourable Kennedy Agyapong, Mr Boakye lit up and said “ahaaa that man, his A is his A and his B is his B; he will talk plenty but end up exceeding your expectations and you will be impressed”. Nobody present seemed to disagree, be it verbally or in gesture. But at the mention of a second man, Mr. Boakye said, “forget about that man; this man suffers from a bankruptcy of goodwill”. Everybody laughed, supposedly in agreement. I laughed because everyone was laughing. But I had never heard of the second man. I had no reason to believe he wasn’t up to the task. Yet, until an incident changes it, I probably associate the second man with an inability to deliver. “Bankruptcy of Goodwill”. That’s a rather peculiar phrase. It stuck with me. In one swoop, any opportunities at that table was put outside the second man’s reach. His reputation cost him. So I thought, how does Goodwill and Reputation work when we take one individual as a business entity? What is GOODWILL The total value of any good brand, be it a person or a company, is always more than the sum of all of its tangible assets. The whole should always be greater than the sum of its parts. That excess value, is goodwill. Goodwill does not take physical form. It’s not a tangible asset like a house or car. Yet, it still adds value to whoever owns it. If a non-physical feature of a business entity can be clearly and easily demonstrated, and if that feature results in the creation of value, then that value just mentioned is goodwill. Examples of intangible elements that contribute to your goodwill are customer lists, licences, ‘contacts’, and intellectual property such as copyrights and trade secrets. After reading this again, I am really seeing why Mr Boakye viewed Honourable Kennedy Agyapong as not lacking goodwill, compared to the second man. Goodwill is not about physical money or assets. What is REPUTATION               Your business reputation is the sum of all the things that other people feel about you or your business, based on one or more experiences they’ve had with you or your business. It comes from the information they’ve gathered elsewhere or from the horse’s own mouth, whether true or not. Reputation exists both online and offline, in both your loyal customers and followers, and also in complete strangers. You can have an idea of how you want to be perceived by others. But how the public sees you or your business is never necessarily how you plan it. Reputation is tricky, very fickle. Easy to lose a good one, hard to do away with a bad one. What’s the difference between Goodwill and Reputation? It’s common to use these two terms interchangeably. But they are different. Goodwill is generated from actual business. To create goodwill, there needs to be a genuine availability of goods and/or services in connection to the intangible elements mentioned earlier. Real business needs to be done using these intangible elements, by making products available or providing services. Reputation require something much simpler: only awareness. That’s all. Once you become aware of the characteristics of an entity, true or untrue, real or fictional, that knowledge you have creates a reputation for it. You don’t need actual business or transactions to create a reputation. Nothing like that. It doesn’t even need to be in the same country as you, nor the same planet as you. For example: Kasapreko Alomo Bitters may be so popular all over the world that its reputation crosses borders and continents into countries like Morocco and Dubai without a single bottle of Kasapreko ever being in that country. No business needs to be transacted for reputation to be created. The awareness alone, maybe through social media and interviews and trade shows, is enough to create a solid reputation overseas. Reputation is a serious issue because of its volatility. As corporate men and women, of course we would all like for others to think good things about us. It makes business much easier. But as we’ve just discussed, reputation goes far beyond just how we look like or what we appear to be. Reputation is affected by everything we do. That’s in the literal sense. Literally everything you do contributes to your reputation. The way you talk. The way you walk. What you say. Where you step. Every decision you made since waking up from bed. Even your body language. These are all factors that reinforce your reputation. Reputation affects everything we do. While your reputation is being affected by everything you do, it is also deciding everything you do at the same time. A good or bad reputation will make it easy or hard to do certain things at certain places. In this way, your reputation determines which actions you take, while every action you are taking is feeding the current reputation. Reputation is everywhere. You can’t run from Reputation because by mere breathing, you are creating it. Even after