Michael D. Moberly May 26, 2016 ‘A blog where attention span really matters’!
What Are Intangible Assets…
Company and institutional value has shifted from collections of physical (tangible) assets to synergistic assemblages of non-physical IA’s (intangible assets) rooted in – evolving from intellectual, structural, relationship, and competitive/entrepreneurial capital.
However, unlike conventional IP (intellectual property), i.e., patents, trademarks and copyrights, there is no certificate issued by the government that says ‘these are your IA’s and competitive advantages’. Instead, the responsibility for identifying, assessing, safeguarding and otherwise preserving the value of those assets is a fiduciary responsibility for each company – organization and its management team.
Margaret Blair and Steven Wallman, previously associated with the Brookings Institution’s ‘intangibles project’, serving as that project’s principle investigators, along with Jonathan Low, describe IA’s as…“non-physical factors of production that contribute to or are used in producing goods or services, or as factors expected to generate future benefits for the individuals or firms controlling the assets”.
I see, with increasing consistency IA’s are the product of uncoordinated, unplanned, variously collaborative, and occasionally serendipitous actions of knowledge relevant individuals, and not necessarily the result of a decision arising from a dedicated capital allocation. Specific examples of IA’s are described with considerable specificity in numerous posts at my ‘Business IP and Intangible Asset Blog’ and distinguished in some 14+ categories.
The relevance of IA assessments…
An IA assessment is a methodical, insightful, and ultimately prescriptive tool for identifying, unraveling, and distinguishing the contributory – competitive value of key – strategic IA’s that underlie (serve as the foundation to) a company’s stability, profitability, and sustainability, and reputation.
To be sure, IA-specific assessments remain relatively new. They have largely born out of necessity, that is, the economic fact – global business reality that 80+% of most company’s value, sources of revenue, and sustainability lie in – evolve directly form IA’s, no longer tangible-physical assets. As such, a new, non-conventional approach (method, model) to identify and assess those assets was needed; distinguishable from conventional IP valuations and inventories. To accommodate IA’s, this approach must, of course, be sufficiently flexible to (reveal) identify IA’s in a variety of inter-linked and global circumstances and contexts in which they’re being used and the formats in which they exist.
