Michael D. Moberly, Principal, Founder, kpstrat
Intangible assets emerge for a business in 15+ forms and contexts. See htpps://kpstrat.com
Experientially, I argue, mission essential business things intangible are assets which emanate from – exist (largely) as ‘information and perception of same, which emerge from the confluence and collaboration of intellectual, structural, and relationship capital developed and applied by people.
Unfortunately, business things intangible, irrespective of their form or context are routinely at some state of risk, often relative to their contributory role, value, competitiveness, etc., and such risks may continue throughout that assets life, value, and/or materiality cycle, e.g.,
- risk of/to being impaired relative to an assets’ contributory roles to benefit their holder’s value, revenue generation capability/capacity, competitiveness, and/or sustainability.
Intangible asset impairment can and does materialize – cascade in various ways and not infrequently are preludes to premature value – competitive advantage undermining and erosion.
If – when ‘mission essential’ intangible assets are not acknowledged, their contributions dismissed and/or mis-managed, their receptivity – vulnerability to possibly be illegally – unethically acquired by…
- entrenched global cadres of ultra-sophisticated – aggressively predatorial adversaries,
- who seek to apply same for their economic – competitive advantage w/o incurring the initial capital outlays necessary for independent development.
Yes, I do characterize myself and kpstrat as having 25+ years of experiential and operational familiarity with business things intangible, insofar as strategy and risk mitigation.
Collectively + collaboratively, this thinking focuses (primarily, as needed) to respectfully guide business leadership and management teams to distinguish, exploit, and safeguard their ‘mission essential’ intangible assets, i.e.,
- those business things intangible whose value, competitiveness, and revenue generation capability, etc., are essential to business sustainability going forward.
Development, exploitation, management, and safeguards applied to ‘mission essential’ business things intangible (today, and for the foreseeable future) are (fiduciarily) obliged to be,
- collectively integrated at the earliest stage of each asset’s development and exploitation,
- not merely presumed to commence if – when an (intellectual – structural) asset may be conventionally issued/designated as IP (intellectual property), i.e., a patent, trademark, or acknowledged as copyrightable subject matter.
In our judgement, neither action or investment related to business things intangible are mutually exclusive. Instead, each manifest as on-going obligations to recognize, foresee, and manage effectively and try to mitigate risk when – where necessary, i.e.,
- if particular – risks materialize and cascade throughout an enterprise to adversely affect (impair) the performance (contributory roles, value, revenue generation, and/or competitive advantage) capabilities of ‘mission essential’ intangible assets.
- growing percentages of business operations globally are irreversibly ‘intangible asset intensive and dependent.
- how, when, and/or whether intangible assets a business recognizes as ‘essential’ perform as such, i.e., as expected – desired (individually or collectively) are (fiduciary) obligations.
