Your people aren’t your most valuable asset. Your brand is.
A study of companies by BusinessWeek showed that “on average, brands account for more than one-third of shareholder value.” This is not, as you may immediately think, a figure for consumer brands; it’s a figure across both consumer and corporate brands.*
Jan Lindermann, the former global GM of Interbrand who wrote The Financial Value of Brands,** quotes a survey from The World Economic Forum: the world’s leading CEOs believe that a corporate brand or reputation represents more than 40% of a company’s market capitalisation on average.***
Your brand commands immense power. It is the sum total of people’s experiences of, perceptions of, and respect for your business. Your business matters. Your brand has the power to make it matter more.
* BusinessWeek / Interbrand, Best Global Brands, 2007
** Lindermann, J., The financial value of brands, Brands and Branding, The Economist in association with Profile Books, 2009: 26
*** The World Economic Forum, Voice of the Leaders Survey, Fleishman Hillard, 22 Jan 2004
**** Clifton, R., The case for brands, Brands and Branding, The Economist in association with Profile Books, 2009: 5