Modelling the IC of Google’s search business
Google’s search business is a great example of a knowledge factory. While it is driven by highly complex math, the business model developed a decade ago is very simple. It all started with the competencies of two computer science graduate students at Stanford, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The year was 1995. Page was looking [...]
Why visualization is so important for intangible capital
One of the big reasons that folks don’t do more explicit thinking about intangible capital is that they have no frameworks or mental models about IC.
We see this disconnect in a lot of businesses. Just about every manager knows that our economy has shifted. They know that knowledge is an important driver of their [...]
Intangibles Are the New Raw Materials
—Raw Materials In the tangible economy, raw materials are combined and sometimes transformed to make finished goods. It is often impossible to see the different raw materials in the finished product—together, they make something completely new. In fact, there is often a progression of processes that lead to a final product. Stalks of wheat, for [...]
Intangible Capital – Putting Knowledge to Work in the 21st Century Organization
Through our consulting business over the last ten years or so, we have seen the movement from the industrial age to the knowledge age accelerate. The inability of current accounting standards to keep up with this shift means that a recent look at the S&P 500 market value revealed that market value exceeded the book value of its component companies by 70%. Additionally, Ernst & Young data from 2007 showed 50% of the value of all mergers was assigned to goodwill and another 20% to other intangible assets. Intangibles are clearly an important factor in how businesses grow today.
The Moment is Now to Leverage Our Knowledge Intangibles
Intangibles make up 70% of the value of the average company. They drive competitive advantage. They determine the innovation capacity of a company. Yet they continue to be ignored.
And now we are at a moment of truth. Our economy seemingly made huge progress in the past decades. Computers created efficiencies and fueled profits. They [...]
Changing the Mindset
Challenges around energy use, sustainability, health care, transportation and education will create opportunities in almost every industry. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, business owners need to start thinking today about how their business can leverage these opportunities in the future.
Planning for 2009 – A Different Approach
A Strategic Conversations exercise with employees is an inexpensive way to extract information and benefit from the knowledge that your employees possess. You can ask about how the company can perform tasks faster or better or cheaper, and where there are areas to improve.
Taking our own Advice
Michael has done more and more work as a consultant and coach to private business owners. He is also one of the founders of the highly successful Exit Planning Exchange, an organization whose goal is to better prepare advisors to help owner-managed businesses plan for successful exit. Mary has focused on helping our clients to measure, manage and monetize their intellectual capital. She has helped found an informational website and has developed a world-wide following through her blogs and networking.
Change Your Model through Intangible Capital
Luckily, companies built on intellectual capital can be easier to change than those based on large, fixed assets.
Is it the Recession?
They didn’t rely on the economy to fuel their recovery—they built it from their own strengths.
