Michael D. Moberly   December 22, 2015  Where attention span really matters’ IA’s (intangible assets) have obviously become irreversibly permanent fixtures – components to most organization’s economics, i.e., their primary sources of value, revenue, and competitive advantage, etc.

And, interestingly, global (business) economies still remain in the earliest of stages, relatively speaking, of the underlying knowledge (IA) era. Through my lens anyway, as an IA strategist and risk specialist, this leaves organizations and their management teams fully obliged to push most conventional (tangible asset) thinking, strategy, and practice about where, when, and how their value, competitiveness, and revenue originate and/or evolve aside and genuinely engage – undertake initiatives intended to achieve the important and necessary eureka moment of ‘I get it’!

However, most organizations and their management teams, frequently gravitate to distinguishable ‘operating cultures’, i.e., the quantitative (tangible) vs. the qualitative (intangible). At that, it would indeed be a misinterpretation and miscalculation should any reader assume the intellectual and structural preparations for engaging an organization’s IA’s to be too disruptive to its culture and/or exceed managerial comfort zones to continue.

On the other hand this may prompt some organization management teams to ask; what type-level of thinking is necessary to effectively cross the chasm from the tangible to the intangible? Perhaps the appropriate response to that question lies in the professional irresponsibility to assume that chasm of IA thinking can be squeezed into bumper sticker ‘sloganisms’ to indulge a presumptively narrow attention span.

There is indeed a thought leader responsibility to assume that matters related to their organization’s IA’s, warrant articulate clarity to think – act differently about when, where, how, and the circumstances which organizational value, competitive advantage, and revenue originate, develop, and convert. An intent of course is to present organizational leadership with relevant and respectful insight and perspective for…

• recognizing how IA’s individually, collectively, and collaboratively contribute to value, competitiveness, and when addressed effectively favorably impact an organization’s community.
• drawing attention to the various ways value – competitive advantage attaches and contributes.