Intangibles Measurement IV: Indicators and Performance Management

Here’s the next post in my intangibles measurement series. The last two posts have provided details on investment and assessment. This time, I am going to talk about the third kind of data: indicators.

Indicators and performance management are the most widely used forms of intangibles management today. This approach arose in direct response to the limitations of financial data in understanding the knowledge era business. Common approaches build a dashboard to show key performance indicators (KPI’s) of the company’s operations. Sometimes the dashboard is associated with a balance scorecard as well.

The idea is to identify data points that are leading indicators of strategic success and track them closely. Read more

Intangibles Measurement III: Assessment

Here’s the next post in my intangibles measurement series. In my last post, I made the case for measuring your annual investment in intangibles. Tracking how much you are spending is the logical starting point for measuring intangibles.

Once you understand how much you have spent, of course the next step is to ask whether you are getting your money’s worth. Is your investment giving you the results you expected? If you try to do this on a purely financial basis, you are going to reach a dead end very quickly. As explained in my last post, intangibles get very limited attention in today’s accounting paradigm.

That’s why assessment in your best bet for getting at intangible performance quickly and accurately. Read more

Intellectual Capital: Define it, Understand it, Capture it.

Mary Adams will be speaking at the Association for Consulting Expertise about Intellectual Capital: Define it, Understand it, Capture it. The speech,  on September 18th in Portland ME, is open to the public. Hope to see you there!

Intangibles Measurement II: Investment

Here’s the next installment in my intangibles measurement series. I always warn folks that this the most radical of the three types of intangible measurement, although it shouldn’t be.

Today, any money you spend on building intangibles gets expensed. Even if you are investing money to build something you expect your company to use for many years to come. This means that most of the money spent on developing internal knowledge systems, operational processes and even relationships with key partners is treated as a direct operating expense on the income statement in the year that you make the investment.

There are a lot of valid accounting reasons why this is the case. I’m not out to change accounting. But I  focus on helping companies make better decisions to grow and improve performance. And the secret to that, except when my clients are buying a new machine (which isn’t that common), is to invest in intangibles like process, IP, people and networks.

So here’s my radical proposal: keep track of how much you are investing in intangibles every year. Read more

Intangibles Measurement

I just took a quick break from my vacation week to participate in the IAFS monthly conversation about intangibles. Here’s the presentation I made on Intangible Asset Performance and Financial Results.

It builds on the recent video we posted that shows how to model the intangible factory. Read more

New Book: Professional Service Marketing

Marketing and selling can be challenging for any business. But services can be especially hard because they are so, well, intangible.

Mike Schultz and John Doerr, authors of Professional Services Marketing, take a lot of the mystery out of it. I have known them for quite a few years. I respect how they have built their firm based on a lot of good content.

It feels like almost all the content has made it into their new book. That makes it a great buy. But it means that it is a bit overwhelming. There are 23 chapters about every aspect of marketing that you can think of. They explore each aspect from multiple perspectives. So if you are involved in marketing a professional services firm, you will want to have this book on your shelf.

My suggestion is to read it in short bursts. You cannot absorb all the content by reading the book straight through. There are special offers associated with the book all day today and tomorrow (August 3 & 4) if you want to check it out.