Michael D. Moberly March 31, 2009
Increasingly larger percentages of a company’s value, sources of revenue, future wealth creation, and sustainability are rooted in a company’s intangible assets. Today, the stewardship, oversight, and management of intangibles must be a consistent fiduciary responsibility because:
…there is no other time in the history of company governance when ensuring control, use, ownership, and value of intangible assets and mitigating the attendant (asymmetric) risks is a more direct contributor to achieving growth, profitability, competitive advantages, and sustainability!
…intangible assets are perishable and generally non-renewable (resources) assets, that is, once they have been compromised, economic and competiive advantage hemorrhaging will commence immediately and globally, therefore…
Why is it…?
1. You can probably pinpoint the precise time of day your desk stapler when missing, but you may be absolutely clueless about the location, origins, stability, fragility, sustainability, or value of your intangible assets and how to put them to use to benefit your company…
2. You may entrust your most valuable intangible assets, competitive advantages, business practices, and sensitive strategic plans to employees you (only) say hi, goodbye, and thanks to at the office or Kinko’s…
3. Most companies learn about the (real) value of their misappropriated, compromised, infringed, or stolen trade secrets, proprietary know how, intangible assets, and IP by asking legal counsel what their fees will be to try to get them back…
If you assume…
1. Your most valuble intangible assets, know how, and competitive advantages are protected by computer/IT security, NDA’s, and non-competes, try listening to cell phone conversations in hotel lobbies, airport lounges, or look at your employees’ online resumes’, or merely glance at the laptop screen of the person seated next to you…
2. Your company’s ideas and innovation are adequately safeguarded merely because a patent has been issued; it’s time you learned about (state/corporate sponsored, independant) global data mining, business intelligence, and information brokering operations, or click on www.globalfleamarket.com and see your company’s prototypes and new products in counterfeit form, or click on www.companytradescrets.com and see your ideas, R&D, innovation, and competitive advantages presented-discussed in detail…
3. No one is interested in your company’s strategic planning, client lists, pricing strategies, R&D, and business practices, why are there 19+ university programs in the U.S. and Canada alone, plus hundreds of seminars conducted globally to train people in the art and science of collecting and analyzing business and economic intelligence?
