CFO Magazine published my comments on reputation

In the September issue of CFO a comment by Intangible Capital author, Mary Adams:

Prevention Is the Best Approach

It’s important to understand how damaging reputational crises can be (”What’s a Reputation Worth?” May). But the real story is how to prevent them.

Seventy percent of the value of the average company is intangible. This is because processes, knowledge, and networks (all considered intangible by accountants) are the core drivers of competitive success — and reputation.

Managing reputation starts with managing these intangibles. That’s why we say reputation is the new bottom line.

Mary Adams
Founder and Principal
I-Capital Advisors
Winchester, Massachusetts

 

Program this Friday: Intangibles and Security

Tax payers expect police, national guard, and military to provide “real” security. Government expects the private sector to provide the lion’s share of security investment. Is there a business case that can help the private sector rationalize the investment and bridge the expectation gap?

Join us Friday, 3 September, at 12h00 EDT for the Mission Intangible Monthly Briefing. Sean Lyon, principal, R.I.S.C. International (Ireland), corporate defense pioneer and the architect of the emerging cross-functional discipline of corporate defense management (CDM) in conversation with Robert Liscouski, member of the Board, Implant Sciences (NASDAQ:IMSC) and former Assistant Secretary, US Department of Homeland Security will explore the business case.

Registration, as always, is complimentary. Slides and an exemplary downloadable program are posted on the EVENTS tab (Link to our Summer 2010 News page, our new RepuStars composite indices, and other content below). Mary Adams, I-Capital Advisors, moderates.

If you are a senior executive, a board member, or have a financial interest in any publicly traded security, you (or a colleague Send to a Friend) won’t want to miss this event. Learn more.

Finally! A discussion of accounting for intangibles

I am thrilled to be part of the upcoming Rutgers University program on accounting for intangibles called Comprehensive Firm Valuation Symposium: Intangibles Come to Age.

This is an important first step to raise the level of the conversation about intangibles in the U.S. I will be talking about intangibles measurement along with

• Baruch Lev, NYU;
• Stefano Zambon, University of Ferrara;
• Amy Pawkicki, AICPA;
• Miklos Vasarhelyi, Rutgers

This symposium is open to the public but has limited seating. More information

Program today: You Say IP, I Say IPR

Accountants document on the balance sheet that which: (a) is a diminishing fraction of enterprise value; (b) excludes the innovations and business processes comprising intellectual properties (and rights) that create above-average profits; and (c) is of passing interest to risk and financial executives concerned with cash flow.

Are the rules and language of accounting a hindrance to the creation and monetization of intellectual properties, or irrelevant?

Join me Friday, 6 August, at 12h00 EDT for the Mission Intangible Monthly Briefing as I interview

Dr. Roya Ghafele, Lecturer at Oxford University and expert on IP perceptions, and formerly an economist at both the UN World Intellectual Property Organization and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and

Jim Singer, partner at the Pepper Hamilton law firm, a member of the firm’s intellectual property practice group who publishes the IP Spotlight blog, and is formerly an electrical engineer with an iconic oil firm.

For more information and to register.

If you are general counsel, IP counsel, chief financial officer, a risk officer, an IP executive, a manager of strategic partnerships, a reputation executive (marketing, PR), a board member of any public company, or have a financial interest in any publicly traded security, you won’t want to miss this event.

Why the SBA Should Care About Intangibles

Read the statement about the importance of intangibles to entrepreneurship that I co-authored with Ken Jarboe of the Athena Alliance in response to an SBA RFI on entrepreneurial mentoring on the Athena website. IC is critical to the development of all companies–most especially entrepreneurial and high-growth ones.

Let us know what you think!

Program this Friday: Reputation in the Post-BP Marketplace

“This has now turned into a reputation matter, financial and political, and that is why you will now see more of me,” said BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg 18 June 2010, as headline risk mushroomed and intangible asset value collapsed.

Join me Friday, 9 July, at 12h00 EDT for the Mission Intangible Monthly Briefing. I’ll be hosting Jonathan Salem Baskin and Nir Kossovsky to talk about reputation and how to manage it.

If you are general counsel, chief financial officer, a risk officer, a manager of strategic partnerships, a reputation executive (marketing, PR), a board member of any public company, or have a financial interest in any publicly traded security, you (or a colleague Send to a Friend) won’t want to miss this event. Learn more

Jeremy Phillips on Intangible Capital

Jeremy Phillips, a leading blogger on IP Finance and other blogs has just written a review of Intangible Capital. He says:

It’s much more fun to read than the rather solemn title suggests,
combining strands of history, economics, management, metaphor and common sense, personal experience and anecdote. It’s also a monument to the metamorphosis of management and asset management philosophies from the age of bricks and mortar to the world of the internet…it gets the reader into the mindset for asking the right questions…Read the review

Our Story is in the Latest Boston Business Journal

Michael Oleksak and I were featured in this week’s Boston Business Journal in an article entitled Setting the Right Growth Gauge is a Challenge for Startups.

The reporter, Keith Regan, did a good job of weaving the story our firms (Trek and I-Capital Advisors) together with the story of our new book, Intangible Capital. Please read his version which is woven together with the story of Quality and Productivity Solutions in Oxford, MA.

It felt funny to have our story told in public. The bankers in us were not happy with a decline in our business last year. But the consultants in us saw it as a calculated risk that could pay off big—and already has started to this year. The citizens in us saw it as a no-brainer: our country and our globe are at a critical moment. The challenges keep racking up. And the solutions will only come through innovation–leveraging our collective intangible capital to re-create every corner of society in a new, sustainable, smarter way.

Hope you will join us on the journey.

If you are interested, here’s a longer version of the story we prepared as background:
Read more

Today at noon EDT: Driving Intangible Risk Management into the C-Suite

The black goo may be coming ashore in the Gulf Coast, but many would argue that the muck originated in a remote boardroom. In the wake of major headline risk events at BP, Massey, and the venerated Johnson & Johnson, the IAFS’s Mission Intangible Monthly Briefing tackles the trifecta of risk, governance and compliance with our program, Driving intangible risk management into the C-suite.

Leading this conversation on Friday 4 June at 12h00 EDT are Matthew Hogg, Vice President at Liberty International Underwriters, who chairs the Society’s Risk Committee and Cathy L. Reese, a Principal with Fish & Richardson, who chairs the Society’s IA Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Hogg is a pioneer in intangible asset risk transfer; Ms. Reese is a leading advocate for board-level oversight of intangible asset management.

Registration for this and each Mission Intangible Monthly Briefing is complimentary. Slides and an exemplary downloadable program are posted on the website EVENTS page. Mary Adams, I-Capital Advisors, moderates.

If you are general counsel, chief financial officer, a risk officer, a manager of strategic partnerships, a reputation executive (marketing, PR), a board member of any public company, or have a financial interest in any publicly traded security, you (or a colleague Send to a Friend) won’t want to miss this event.

Learn more

IC for Public Relations and Investor Relations Professionals

Mary Adams, co-founder of Trek and I-Capital Advisors, will be appearing on a panel on June 10 at the Public Relations Society of America in Boston.

The program is entitled: New Era, New Valuation Shift: Communicating Intangible Assets.

We’re still emerging from an economic downturn, marketing budgets are flat at best, and yet we’re still charged with moving marketing and PR forward for our organizations.  At any moment, someone could flip the switch and we’ll be off and running on the next wave of productivity and profitability.  Will you be ready?

A turbulent economy aside, today’s communications professionals and corporate PR/IR staff face an interesting challenge: how do we communicate our company’s ‘intangible assets’ — intellectual capital, corporate culture — to the market, customers, media and investors?  Increasingly, even consumer-based companies will be expected to play a thought leadership role in our knowledge-based economy and if we aren’t doing it already, we should be.

Join us for a discussion on how to incorporate new values into your existing system of corporate communications and demonstrate real value of the assets inside your organizations.

Panelists will include:

• Mary Adams, Founder of
  I-Capital Advisors and co-author of Intangible Capital: Putting Knowledge to Work
  in the 21st Century Organization
• Todd Fromer, Managing
  Partner, Investor Relations, KCSA Strategic Communications, an
  integrated IR/ PR firm
• Nir Kossovsky, M.D., CEO of
  Steel City Re, a reputation risk solutions company, and the author of
  IAM magazine’s reputation case study series.

More information and registration

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