The still, not-so-obvious, but absolutely essential components to…creating, building business value, sustainability, sources of revenue, and competitive advantage, etc., lie in monetizing-exploiting company’s intangible assets, primarily intellectual, structural, and relationship capital, and mitigating risks.

This is one charge intangible asset strategists and risk specialists consistently endeavor to…achieve on behalf of companies and clients, i.e., develop and execute practical, business-product specific strategies with lucrative and competitive outcomes. Often, this commences by drawing clients interest – recognition to…

• the globally universal economic fact and business reality that 80+% of most company’s value, sources of revenue, competitive advantages, reputation, and sustainability today lie in – emerge directly from intangible assets they have acquired, developed, and matured…
• most business circumstances and transactions undertaken today and their projected returns, i.e., value, revenue, competitive advantage, etc., are more likely to materialize when their intangible assets are effectively put in play and collaboratively converge, at the right level and the right time.
• today, it is a requisite to effective business – strategic management, i.e., profitability, revenue generation, competitive advantage, and sustainability, etc., to achieve operational (business) level familiarity with key intangible assets that consistently deliver – contribute to business value, competitiveness, and revenue.
• business leadership and management teams have fiduciary responsibilities (Stone v. Ritter) to routinely and objectively ask…
  • …is this company properly positioned, insofar as possessing the necessary expertise and skill sets, to identify, unravel, develop, bundle, utilize, and extract as much value as possible from its IA’s, while simultaneously monitoring – mitigating risks and safeguarding assets’ value, sustainability, and materiality…?

So, why is it that a not-infrequent rejoinder by practitioners when approached with a new management tool and/or process…ala intangible assets, which perhaps they have limited familiarity, but have achieved uncontestable records of producing revenue, value, and competitive advantage benefits to businesses…

• which, are frequently – initially dismissed and/or skepticism expressed, because intangibles are not immediately recognized as a correlate to mitigating a (business point of) pain.

Once a businesses intangible assets are dismissed, or skepticism regarding their contributory role and value is expressed…recognition of projected – anticipated beneficial outcomes materialize, when – if it occurs, during or following a substantial ‘business pain’.

In most instances ‘felt’ business pain is interpreted as warranting immediate ‘stop gap’ attention…and resources by company leadership, but which anecdotal experience suggests, the initial risk(s) may have already metastasized – cascaded to being irreversible.

One plausible (anecdotal) explanation for this phenomena has-to-do-with the self-evident and current commonality of short-lived – abbreviated attention spans…which breed inclinations to focus primarily  on what’s perceived or characterized as near term issues, concerns, outcomes, or risks.

Not-so-coincidentally, these inclinations (perceptions) align with... existing business practices and transaction environments which bear the mantra of go fast, go hard, go global, but leave little, if any, space or shelf-life for initiatives that deviate from past practice or convention, particularly those already well-versed in conventional business school curricula.

Effectively managing a company’s intangible assets lies in recognizing the necessity and relevance of looking forward…i.e., sustain control, use, and ownership, and monitor value, materiality, competitiveness, and risk of relevant (in play) intangible assets a business holds.

Should these (fiduciary responsibilities) obligations be dismissed, neglected, not occur, or fail…little else may matter, because the contributory roles and values created – delivered to every business, i.e., as sources of competitive advantages, revenue, reputation, etc., will quickly erode, become undermined, or, go to zero!

Michael D. Moberly May 1, 2017 St. Louis [email protected] the ‘Business Intangible Asset Blog’ since May 2006, 650+ published posts, read in 137 countries, ‘where one’s attention span, businesses intangible assets, and solutions converge’!

Readers are invited to explore more blog posts, position papers, video, and books at https://kpstrat.com/blog

As always, comments are encouraged and most welcome.