In most company’s, intangible assets are akin to the proverbial ‘hand in front of our face’. That is, they’re often embedded in (a company’s) routine operations, processes, and functions that, in many instances, fall under our conventional ‘mba – tangible asset oriented radar’.
In the ‘Barbie vs. Bratz’ doll case, not only are company reputation’s at stake, but potentially millions, if not billions of dollars of revenue as well. And, when challenges and disputes (over IP and intangibles) are becoming the norm, proactive unraveling and monitoring of the origins and development of ideas and innovation must go well beyond patent applications and the wishful thinking assumptions embedded in NDA’s, confidentiality agreements, and non-competes.
For some business decision makers, the phrase ‘knowledge-driven economy’ is considered an over-used and meaningless cliche.
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!
To effectively position a company’s intangible assets to maximize their (potential) value requires an obvious interest and understanding of the nuances of intangible assets aligned with certain necessary skill sets.
An important objective (outcome) to any business transaction today should always be to maximize and extract as much value as possible from the intangible assets in play and/or are part of a deal.