Michael D. Moberly, Principal, Founder kpstrat and ‘Business Intangible Asset Blog – Business Intangible Asset Strategies and Risk Mitigator

The title of this post reflects the economic – business operation reality that today, and for the foreseeable future, 80+/-% of most business’s valuation, revenue generation capability-capacity, competitiveness, and sustainability are increasingly dependent – reliant on…

• the right intellectual (knowledge, know how), capital, structural (process, procedure)capital, and relationship (association) capital, are applied, at
• the right time, in the right way, at the right cost.

Mitigating risks to + safeguarding the operating cultures which ‘mission essential’ assets are embedded, held, and publicly conveyed, are…

• the underliers to achieving viable + business specific organizational resilience.

The principles + outcomes (near term-strategic) of organizational resilience initiatives are definable, observable, assessable, accountable, and durable.

Achieving good – better – best business-asset-brand-transaction specific organizational resilience commences by…

• recognizing that businesses (brands, products, services, reputations, etc., across sectors, are (increasingly – irreversibly) intangible asset intensive, dependent, and reliant.
• differentiating a business’s ‘mission essential’ intangible assets, and
• incorporating (business) continuity – contingency – risk management ‘thinking’.

Organizational resilience produces the most benefits to a business when these five perspectives are considered – incorporated…

1. recovery orientation to elevate awareness of – appreciation for the onset (vulnerability-probability-criticality) of particular-risks and/or adverse events to better enable a business, et al, to return to an acceptable state of operational normalcy and performance in an acceptable time-period should particular risk(s) materialize.

2. hardening of ‘mission essential’ assets by considering – applying particular- tactics-strategies to render those assets, i.e., more challenging, more difficult, and ultimately, less susceptible to certain risks and adverse events+ more defensible. 

• infrastructure hardening is intended to increase the resources, time, efforts, costs, etc., which an adversary expends to execute particular – risks by limiting – denying accessibility + increasing defensibility of a business’s ‘mission essential’ assets.

3. redundancy – ensuring a business’s intangible asset infrastructure (of ‘mission essential’ assets) have sufficient + do-able redundancies (i.e., contingencies, continuities, and/or backups, etc.) to sustain their contributory roles – values adds to competitiveness, valuation, and revenue generation capability-capacity, etc.

4. accessibility of a business to its stakeholders, customers, clients, consumers (current and prospective).

• communicate at will, throughout its operating culture + value-supply-distribution chain.
• sustain its capability to offer – distinguish – deliver its products, services, and brands.

5. diversification – advocate a collective – collaborative infrastructure (of mission essential assets) which can be operational while being physically diversified – distributed and capable of being managed during periods of duress, materialized risks, and/or adverse events.  

• diversifications’ key objectives are to avoid allowing a business’s ‘mission essential’ eggs to remain in a single basket, e.g., substantial reliance – dependence on the status quo, e.g., particular-sets of clients-customers, economic circumstances, markets, and/or sourcing.

Organizationally resilience is obliged to reflect more than a single ‘what if’ circumstance, or a specific reaction to, or defensive posture to be assumed. OR encompasses each plus (fiduciarily) obligations for…

• proactive initiatives – measures to ‘fit a range of circumstances, economic-competitive advantage adversaries and/or risk perpetrators.
• plans to sustain, and preferably enhance a business’s competitive position for the duration of the risk materialization, adverse event, or circumstance. 

Please note: Readers are respectfully obliged to consider that extreme applications of infrastructure hardening tactics, may-can (inadvertently) lead to a ‘fortress mentality’ image, which some consumers, stakeholders, critics, etc., may characterize as being excessive or ideologically opposite, and influenced to withdraw or condition their support.

This post was inspired by the fine work of Gregg Goble, Howard Fields, and Richard Cocchiara of IBM’s Resilient Business and Infrastructures Solutions unit and the work of Dr. Marc Siegel, ASIS-International.

The ‘Business Intangible Asset Blog’ is experientially-researched, written, and produced by Michael D. Moberly, to provide perspectives, insights, and additional and sometimes alternative perspectives to readers, ala business leaders, management teams, boards, and investors, etc., to aid in identifying, distinguishing, assessing, valuing, safeguarding, and lucratively – competitively utilizing -applying their ‘mission essential’ intangible assets. 

Readers are-encouraged to review and comment on this, and other posts wherein arrays of issues related to business things intangible are authentically and practically conveyed.