Absolutely, talk and speech can be sources of extraordinary contribution…to company value, competitive advantage, and reputation, etc., and to any business management team that encourages talk-speech when it is timely, prudent, and insightful as intellectual, structural, and relationship capital.

For example, talk and speech may produce a collective value…in proposing and negotiating a business transaction, conducting transaction due diligence, or introducing a new product or service (new market entry), etc. providing it brings definable clarity to an issue, is somewhat measurable in terms of its contributory role and value. https://kpstrat.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5972

Of course, some talk and speech falls short on…clarity, timeliness, relevance, or is conveyed with faux and/or hyper emotion intended to…

• introduce – influence readers-listeners-watchers through FUD factors, i.e., fear, uncertainty, and/or doubt as a prelude – rationale to making a ‘buy – don’t buy’  – ‘believe – don’t believe’ decision.
• influence listeners to act – not act, or perhaps provide rationalization to previous vagaries or untruths.

Far too often however, if-when one actually practices the above, the product is merely ‘noise’…perhaps to fill heretofore unscheduled time, etc., or a genuine belief, not infrequently held by marketing strategists, that embedding FUD factors in one’s talk and speech is a sure-fire prelude to influencing people’s perspective with respect to how, why, and when.  Preferably most people retain opt in – opt out opportunities and  choices. https://kpstrat.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=244

There remains much talk-speech today…variously touted ‘by national – international media’ as rational discussions-conversations, but which, with regularity, are not-skillfully weaponized, in short order, to appeal to listeners’-observers’ political, emotional, and/or operational agendas and weapons grade viewpoints already internalized.

So, we return to the generational adage that (some) ‘talk is cheap’…especially when expressed in a condescending and/or patronizing manner. The inference being, the speaker is either naïve or operationally unfamiliar with the real variables – facts related to the question or issue at hand.

Unfortunately, all of this is variously indicative of attitudes…still held by some business decision makers and strategists about their company’s intangible assets and their (fiduciary) responsibilities to identify, unravel, assess, exploit, and safeguard those assets.

Today, of course, it is an irreversible economic fact that…80+% of most company’s value, sources of revenue, competitive advantages, and sustainability lie in – emerge directly from intangible assets.

It is also true, that only in recent years…(roughly beginning in the mid-1990’s) that economists, ‘the markets’, and growing numbers of business leadership have began to recognize-internalize that intangible assets, being variously comprised of (1.) intellectual, (2.) relationship, and (3.) structural capital, must be captured, developed, exploited, and safeguarded both inside and outside their origins and the various transactions and circumstances in which they will be very much in play.

No longer are intangible assets mere…instruments or bridges to acquire and manage other, generally physical, assets. Today, of course, most company’s are intangible asset intensive and dependent. What this means for companies is that from an operational standpoint, increasingly larger percentages of their value, revenues, competitive advantages, and sustainability emerge from unique – standalone commodities, i.e., intangible assets. which require safeguards and definition of ownership rights.

Also today, companies routinely find themselves…producing – shaping their ‘brand’ which is rooted in unique knowhow, ala intellectual, structural, and relationship capital, which…

• have materialized as receptive and favorable forms of economic – competitive advantage muscle, and
• can be ethically and lucratively leveraged in various ways, but, only when
• acknowledged and exploited as such.

Nearly all of the world’s most innovative, successful and wealthy companies…are those which are not only intangible asset intensive and dependent, but also that wield, manage, and effectively safeguard their knowledge-base assets, ala intellectual, structural, and relationship capital effectively, genuinely, and lucratively.

Michael D. Moberly  September 10, 2018  St. Louis – Intangible Asset Strategist and Risk Specialist [email protected] ‘Business Intangible Asset Blog’ (Since May 2006) where attention span, business realities, and solutions meet! 

Readers are invited to examine other relevant resources I have produced at https://kpstrat.com/books/