Goodwill is the technical word for the asset of a company being worth more than the sum of its parts. How would you measure the Goodwill of a company in dollar figures?

How important is the reputation of a business?

The reputation of a business is essential to its survival. The trust and confidence of the consumer can have a direct and profound effect on a company’s bottom line. Recently, the importance of reputation has become increasingly apparent, as companies such as BP and Toyota have had to cultivate their responses to crises in order to maintain the reputation and standing of their companies to the world. Unlike the past, in this modern age of social networking, websites, and other methods of instant communication, anything can have an impact on their reputation. Having a good reputation can benefit a business in a multitude of ways including: consumer preference; support for an organization in times of crisis or controversy; and the future value of an organization in the marketplace. If an organization has a good reputation in the marketplace, consumers may have a preference for that company even if there are similar businesses offering the same products or services for different prices.

How important is CEO's reputation to the reputation of the business itself?

Creating and maintaining a positive reputation is a driving factor in the overall value for any company, and building that reputation starts at the top, with the company’s CEO. A CEO is always under the microscope. There is nothing they can do to avoid the attention of the public or the press. It is imperative that all executives be mindful of their perception, how their actions or inactions can help shapes the image of the company. It has been claimed that the apparent success of a company is strongly intertwined with the profile of its leader; the higher the CEO’s profile, the better the perception of company performance. This implies that a healthy relation between the corporate reputation and CEO reputation of an established corporation is one in which the company has the most prominent positive profile. The CEOs can affect the reputation of the brand, the brand shouldn’t be reliant on the CEO. The CEO can add value in good times and have confidence in the brand to take the lead if they encounter difficulties. Virgin and its CEO Branson is a good example of this scenario. However, in recent years we have seen a number of highly-successful start-ups, primarily driven by “celebrity CEOs”, such as the case with Uber. The growth of these firms are largely attributed to the strong reputation of their leaders and their cases can be different. Uber could be a classic example in where the CEO had gone from being a positive asset to a potential liability dragging the company’s reputation down with him.

Is it better to have the reputation of being powerful or of being fair? For example, do you want to be insured by a company that always wins, or by an insurance company that is willing to allow the benefit of any doubt?

When a person treats us fairly, it reveals how he or she values us. "Fairness reflects an assumption about fundamental equality… about not putting your rank in front of other people's interests". The lessons for business leaders are clear. A responsible company should have an ethos that you treat your staff fairly… it should be mutual respect and that should extend to suppliers and customers.

Fairness inside a company has ripples far beyond the office too. Employees who are treated fairly are far more likely to treat others fairly – be they customers, suppliers, business partners, whoever. With fairness comes trust, and with trust comes loyalty. And loyalty carries real commercial weight. Thus, reputation of being fair is the way ahead.

Goodwill is the technical word for the asset of a company being worth more than the sum of its parts.  How would you measure the Goodwill of a company in dollar figures?

Goodwill is a premium that a purchasing company pays a selling company for the privilege of buying its business. The purpose of goodwill is to compensate the seller for the effort he put into building the business. For accounting purpose, each company treats goodwill as a tangible asset with a set value that is equal to the difference between the market or book value of business, and the amount the purchasing company paid for. For instance, assume company A has a total book value of $3 million dollars. If company B purchases all of company A’s stocks for a total of $5 million dollars, then company B paid $2 million in total goodwill for the privilege of purchasing the company. If each share of company A had a book value of %150, and company B paid $250 for each share, then company B paid $100 in goodwill for each share.

References:

https://www.businessinfocusmagazine.com/2012/10/the-importance-of-business-reputation/

https://www.minclaw.com/the-importance-of-ceo-reputation

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/fair-leadership-inspiring-change

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-goodwill-accounting-38665.html

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/112814/how-calculate-goodwill.asp