Intangibles at the National Academies
September 5, 2008 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
In June, 2008, the U.S. National Academies hosted a conference entitled Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth. Many of the participants were economists from the U.S. government; a few academics and a small number of consultants and business people attended as well. You can scan Read more
Intangible Cost, Not Value
September 5, 2008 by Mary Adams · 3 Comments
At the recent conference on Intangible Assets at the National Academies, the discussion “Intangibles in the Firm” consisted of two presentations, one by Baruch Lev, Professor of Accounting and Finance at the Stern School at NYU, and the other by Ron Bossio, Senior Project Manager from the Financial Accounting Standards Board.
It is not surprising that the organizers of the conference turned to two accountants to explain the “state of the art” of intangibles in the firm Read more
The Roots of Innovation
September 4, 2008 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
Innovation is a hot topic today. At ICA, we believe this is directly related to the growing importance of intellectual capital to business success. An innovative company has mastered the art of intellectual capital management.In trying to increase innovation, many focus first on the innovation process, to improve Read more
The New Building Blocks of Business
September 4, 2008 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
The growing importance of intellectual capital to the success of companies is leading to changes in the field of management. The best way to understand these changes is to visualize them in relation to the ten building blocks of a traditional business Read more
The Iceberg Effect
September 1, 2008 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
Up to 90% of the mass of an iceberg is below the waterline and invisible. That’s not too different from the average company. Today, performance, value and profits come from intangibles like people, knowledge and relationships, none of which are visible in traditional financial and management information.
Many consider these intangibles to be “soft” assets, nice to know about but not worthy of a lot of attention. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, that’s the kind of thinking that sent the Titanic to the bottom of the sea. These intangibles, which together form the intellectual capital of the modern business, have fueled the incredible wealth of smart companies in the past decade. Yet most companies still lack basic information about their intangibles.
The intangibles information gap–aka the “iceberg effect”–is a big problem. It forces managers to make decisions based on instinct rather than hard data. It limits the ability of boards of directors to see the full picture of a company’s health. It lowers the value that analysts can ascribe to an investment… Limited decisions, limited oversight, limited valuations. It’s time to close the gap.
I-Capital Advisors helps companies, investors and advisors to extract tangible results from intangible assets. We have methodologies that help companies measure, manage and monetize intellectual capital. Our approach helped a service company triple in size, a consulting company nearly double their rates on their core offering, an information firm gain financing commitments, a software company complete a merger and a contracting firm re-engineer its core business processes.
Are you ready to get paid for what you know? You are in the right place.



