Replacement periods
The question ‘Given a reasonably high priority
how many years would it take to recreate the
current reputation of your company if you had
to start from scratch?’ was also asked with respect
to: The reputation of product range; The knowhow
of employees; the know-how of suppliers;
the know-how of distributors; and networks.
The average replacement period estimated for
each intangible resource is shown in ‘Table 2.
The significance of this question is in the
fact that the possession of resources, such as
reputation, with a long replacement period can
contribute significantly to the defendability of
one’s position.
The three intangible resources which were
rated as most important (Question 1) viz
‘company reputation’, ‘product reputation’, and
‘employee know-how’, were also perceived as
having the longest replacement periods, with
reputation significantly longer than the rest;
however, the CEOs of the ‘High’ performance
group took a more sanguine view of the time
it would take to replace company reputation
than did the CEOs of the other two groups,
although they all took the same view with
respect to the replacement time associated with
product reputation.