New Superpowers – Emerging Frontiers for Process
This week I have been talking about structural capital–the superpower of today’s organization. And process is one of the most important and least understood in terms of its importance and its sustained value to an organization. Most internal processes in today’s organizations already have been automated to one degree or other. There are software programs [...]
The Superpower of the Knowledge Era: Process
Process is not new to business. In fact, process in the form of production lines was a critical driver of the growth of the industrial economy. In a factory, you could see the physical movement of raw material as it moved from the warehouse into a series of production lines with finished goods coming out [...]
IP and IC — the same thing or not?
Intellectual property (IP) is a term that is usually used to refer to specific types of structural capital that enjoy special legal status. These include patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Each of these categories has a specific body of law associated with it. Patents have to be approved by a national authority. Other categories [...]
Leveraging Your Organization’s Unique Knowledge
Organizational knowledge is a more explicit form of structural capital than culture but, like culture, can be hard to pin down. This is all the knowledge that is captured and recorded in your company. This means that every product design, every process map, every training manual, every formula, every document, every email, every entry ever [...]
Intangible Capital and Culture
Culture is the least tangible of the structural capital assets. It can be hard to define but everyone knows it is there. Culture can be a productive or a destructive force within an organization. In general, a culture is what it is—and can be especially hard to change. As a starting point, it is important [...]
The Holy Grail of the Knowledge Economy: Structural Capital
If you understand human and relationship capital, you can start a business. If your business creates value for your customers, you can earn a good living. But you will never grow large or particularly rich with just these two kinds of knowledge assets. This is because the real promise of the knowledge economy comes in [...]
Knowledge is a fundamentally different kind of economic asset
You have probably heard of the the Knowledge Era. You know that we shifted from the Industrial to the Knowledge Era sometime in the recent past. What you may not understand is the implication of this shift for economics–and for your own organization. The big difference comes from this simple fact: Knowledge is infinite. Yes, [...]
