Michael D. Moberly April 27, 2010
Successful Launches of Innovation: How To Keep The Intangible Asset Genies In The Bottle: An Increasingly Important Key To Successful Product/Innovation Launches
An increasingly important and integral ‘genie’ to successful and sustainable launches of new companies and ideas is for decision makers to recognize that…
75+% of the value and future wealth-revenue creation (potential) of the launch lie in protecting, preserving (sustaining) and monitoring control, use, ownership, and value of the companies’ intertwined combinations of intangible assets, specialized know how, competitive advantages and (the products’) brand integrity!
Of course, ‘the genie’ in this instance is a metaphor for (a.) situations in which decision makers overlook or underestimate the role, contribution, and/or value which those assets make to the overall sustainability of a successful business launch, and (b.) the risks-threats which those assets are routinely exposed.
If – when the genie gets out of the bottle as a result of neglect, oversight, or an illicit (llegal) act, an essential requisite for the business to commence recovery is, first and foremost, recognition (awareness and alertness). Delays in discovering and seeking experienced guidance about what action to take, and when, can complicate and even weaken a company’s (legal) position insofar as the possibility of achieving a favorable outcome, i.e., retrieval of the intangibles to their rightful owner (developer).
A speedy and thorough intangible asset – competitive advantage assessment should be considered an integral part of the recovery, i.e., ‘returning the genie to its bottle’. A specialized intangible asset – competitive advantage assessment can aid decision makers to be better able to deliberate on two important points:
1. the circumstances, priorities, and options relative to trying to (re-) establish ownership and/or (re-) obtain control and use of the, by now, economically – value hemorrhaged intangibles.
2. strategies to try to stop and/or mitigage further economic -competitive advantage hemorrhaging (of the assets), i.e., devaluation, undermining, infringement, misappropriation, etc.
Risk-threats to a companies’ intangible assets should not be dismissed lightly or mis-characterized as merely ‘just another risk of doing business’ in today’s hyper-competitive, winner-take-all global business environment.
Far too many companies lose, inadvertently relinquish, and/or become entangled in extraordinarily costly, time consuming, and momentum stifling legal disputes and challenges over the ownership, control, use, and value of their intangible assets and IP. Frequent reasons are that decision makers (a.) dismiss the fiduciary responsibilities of addressing the very real, persistent, and stealthy risks-threats to those assets and their value, and (b.) underestimate the role and contribution which their intangible assets make to successful and sustainable launches of new companies, ideas, and products!
