Public Radio Intangible Asset Intensive – Dependent…

Michael D. Moberly   January 5, 2016   ‘A business blog where attention span really matters’.

I am an advocate, avid listener, and sustaining member-supporter of the NPR (National Public Radio) station in my city. This admission aside, it’s quite correct, in my judgment, to characterize NPR, and its comparables and collaboratives, i.e., American Public Media, Public Radio International, and Public Radio Exchange, etc., as IA (intangible asset) intensive and dependent organizations.

Readers are respectfully obliged to acknowledge that IA (intangible asset) intensity and dependence are not the exclusive domain of private sector, Fortune-ranked corporations, ala Silicon Valley research based startups.   Instead, companies, organizations, and their management teams who wish to capture and exploit their IA intensity-dependency should recognize it emanates from the convergence of intellectual, structural, relationship, trust, reputation, and creative capital relative to organization culture and mission variants, to create – enhance value, for example…

• IA intensive…translates as a high percentage (80+%) of public radio station’s value and impact to its communities of listeners and contributors lie in – evolve directly from the formatting and delivery of its IA’s.
• IA dependent…means that public radio’s daily array of attractive-desirable programming is reliant on a…
  • consistent influx and integration of intellectual, structural, competitive, and relationship capital, ala IA’s…
    • that collectively and collaboratively attract and sustain broad communities of (national, international) listeners, a percentage of which…
    • convert to enhancing and sustaining communities of listeners, memberships, contributions, sponsorships, and corporate-foundation underwriters.

Public radio seems to enjoy the benefits of a continuous and evolving supply of ‘people assets’ who can seamlessly and collaboratively deliver forward looking – thinking variants of their intellectual, structural, and creative capital which inevitably meld into communities of listeners’ ears via expanding  platforms. It is for these reasons that I am confident public radio station’s value, when factored through an IA lens, would lie consistently north of the 80+% figure referenced above.

Client organizations and/or seminar attendees of mine who achieve familiarity with and interest in IA’s, frequently ask me to identify which IA’s their organization – company intensity and dependency are most reliant. The answers to these questions are best addressed through an ‘IA mapping’ exercise I developed which identifies paths-routes that describe when, where, and how IA value and competitive advantage originate, develop, attach, collaborate, and ultimately flow.

I generally endeavor to dissuade organizations and their management teams from using some of the more conventional methodologies that are dismissive of intangibles or merely provide a ‘snap shot in time’ (portrait) of IA’s contributory – collaborative role and status absent recognition of value. The ‘IA mapping’ methodology, which I continually endeavor to refine, acknowledges that the contributory and collaborative aspects underlying IA value, competitive advantage, and materiality is seldom static, rather evolves to accommodate any shifts to an organization’s mission, technology delivery formats, or other issues of the day, etc.

Public radio’s IA asset intensity and dependency also correlates to trust and relationship capital and reputation. Sustaining and banking each category/type of IA with communities of listeners, supporters, and underwriters warrant consistent stewardship particularly in markets where other media-journalistic outlets compete.

Mr. Moberly is an intangible asset strategist and risk specialist and author of ‘Safeguarding Intangible Assets’ published by Elsevier in 2014, m.moberly@kpstrat.com