Michael D. Moberly June 25, 2009
The stewardship, oversight, and management of a company’s intangible assets should no longer be considered passive or optional responsibilities, i.e., I’ll do it when I have time, when I see competitors doing it, or when the government enforces its mandates to do it. Neither should those responsibilities be delegated (relegated) to the unitiated, i.e., those who are dismissive of the economic fact that increasing percentages (65+%) of most company’s value, sources of revenue, competitive advantages, and sustainability lie in – are directly linked to intangible assets!
Too, managing, overseeing, and stewarding a company’s intangible assets need not be extradordinarily time consuming or resource intensive undertakings. Rather, what’s required upfront is merely being receptive and committed to learning what intangible assets are and how they interact with – contribute to a company’s value, revenue, brand, competitive advantage, image, goodwill, reputation, and sustainability, etc.
There are five fundamental and relatively straightforward steps to better management of a company’s intangible assets:
1. Conduct a thorough assessment of internal processes, practices, and procedures through an intangible vs. tangible asset lens to identify and unravel each assets’ status, i.e., primarily its stability and contribution to revenue, competitive advantages, and overall value of the company.
2. Develop a ‘map’ of the company’s intangible assets, i.e., producers, location, value, contributions, and internal-external linkages.
3. Develop and integrate (stewardship, oversight, and management) techniques to ensure the value and revenue attributed to the intangible assets is sustainable, i.e., their value, control, use, and ownership is protectable, defendable, and preservable!
4. Identify specific strategies to better utilize those assets, i.e., position, leverage, and extract value and align them with a company’s core business and strategic planning!
5. Put in place practices to consistently monitor the assets, i.e., to sustain, maximize, and extract as much value as possible.
(This post represents significant modifications by Michael D. Moberly from the research of Nick Bontis.)
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