Pre-Intangible Asset Era…Some Leaders – Companies Remain Stuck

Michael D. Moberly   January 12, 2016   ‘A business blog where attention span really matters’.

Since I began researching, publishing, conducting seminars, and consulting…20+ years ago on various aspects of IA’s (intangible assets), I have encountered many management team members who, on the surface at least, express satisfaction in assuming their organization still functions nicely thank you on practices rooted in the pre-IA era.

I suspect in many instances, what practitioners are exhibiting is a reluctance to engage their IA’s due, I have learned, to a application unfamiliarity which in turn triggers concerns that doing so…

• may exceed their current experiential comfort.
• would be too disruptive (time consuming, costly) to current organizational operating culture.
• can deliver/produce returns unfamiliar to conventional conversion.
• is conventionally thought to be ineffectual because IA’s are seldom, if ever, reported on balance sheets or financial statements.

Unfortunately, company – organization leadership who sustain such dismissive indifference to (uncurious about) their IA’s will seldom, if ever, be positioned to capture and exploit their value, sources of revenue, and/or competitive advantages which frequently I find is ‘readily available for the asking’ in their existing operating culture. Fortunately, I find only the most intractable few management team members will sustain such dismissive positions following my respectful and clarifying discussion. Or perhaps, they learn a competitor’s market advances are attributable to recognizing and engaging their IA’s!

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