The Conference Board is hosting a webinar by Trek principals

Trek is very proud to announce that our principals, Mary Adams and Michael Oleksak, have been invited to deliver a webinar for The Conference Board called

The Future Drivers of Performance and Value: Understanding the intangible infrastructure of your business

The Conference Board has done great macroeconomic research on intangibles and we are excited to talk with their members about the huge opportunities in intangible capital management.  More information

Act like the recession is over

It’s been a tough run for us all over the last few years. From the time in mid-2008 when we saw the recession hitting until now, we’ve lived through challenging times with quite a few of our clients.

Of course technically, the recession is over. But there is still plenty of bad news that gives us all pause every day. Still, the truth is that this year was pretty good for most companies. A number of our clients have had double-digit growth and have good outlooks for next year.

But it hasn’t been easy. And what worked in the past won’t work now. Here are a couple ideas to help you chart a new course: Read more

Options for Identifying Intangible Capital Risks

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Strategic Capital Risks

Strategic Capital is the knowledge of your market, your business opportunity and the business model you create to take advantage of that opportunity.

The right strategy is an asset. This includes staking out the right market and having the right approach to that market. Strategy is also the critical touchstone for evaluating intangible capital and answering the question, “Do we have the right IC to deliver on our strategy?”

The key risks associated with strategic capital include the: Read more

Intangible Capital Case Study: Talking Non-Profit Business Models

Running a non-profit is tough in any economic environment but it’s a nightmare today. Donations are down. Budgets are tight. It’s hard to know where to turn. And, while the financial statements provide clues on managing the cost base, there is no balance sheet for the most important elements a non-profit: its resources, its reputation, its processes and its network.

Here’s how we broke down the intangibles of one non-profit, a regional museum: Read more

Intangible Capital Case Study: Monetizing Your Knowledge

One of the great strengths of the intangible capital (IC) perspective is the lessons it gives around business model and organizational sustainability. The IC Value Drivers Report for this services company provides a great example of this.

By way of background, IC Value Drivers include ten categories of the intangibles that are create the unique competitive advantage of companies today. Read more

Intangible Capital Case Study: Beyond Intuition to Objective Measurement of Intangibles

Most people assume that you cannot measure intangible capital (IC). But it is very possible and also very powerful.

The starting point that we recommend in Intangible Capital is a high-level inventory of your unique intangibles.

Once you have an inventory, there are lots of ways to pursue measurement. We like to start with an IC Value Drivers Assessment. This gives an overview of the unique IC of the organization as well as those that are common in all companies. The areas of examination fall into 10 categories: Read more

CSR without IC is an empty promise

There is a great discussion going on at the IC Knowledge Center about a new EU report on non-financial reporting. Here’s my take:

I think it’s interesting that there were 259 respondents to the public consultation. That shows that there are a lot of people out there thinking about the many facets of non-financial reporting.

But I share both Anne Marie and Abhijit’s concerns that there is no mention of IC. In fact, the report actually makes an explicit definition on page 2 of non-financial reporting as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). While CSR is an important external focus for companies, there also needs to be an internal view of sustainability around knowledge intangibles–the human, relationship, strategic and structural knowledge that together drive corporate success. Read more

Getting Intangible Capital Into Your Performance Measurement System

Building a performance measurement system without the right foundation information would be like designing a dashboard when you have never looked under the hood of a car. Now, “wait a minute,” you will say, “I know my business inside and out.” And you probably do. But no matter how deep your personal familiarity with the business, it still makes sense to build systems that can ensure that provide the right kind of information and controls to keep it on track. This is true in every size company. Knowledge that is concentrated in the head of an individual is knowledge that is at risk. A good performance measurement system is an essential part of the structural capital supporting your organization.

Most performance measurement systems being built today are being built without a basic understanding of the underlying intangible capital of the organization. Since IC represents 80% of the value of the average organization, this means that the integrity and utility of these performance measurement systems should be questioned. It all starts with an inventory of your intangibles. Read more

Design Constraints for a New American Economy: Why Boeing and every other company has no choice but to change

If you follow me on this blog or on twitter, you know that I worry about jobs and the U.S. middle class. That’s why it may seem contradictory to take the position I did in my recent post on Boeing.

Boeing is in the midst of a grand experiment with its 787. It has “outsourced” a greater degree of design on a scale that is unprecedented. What they have essentially done is create a connected community where suppliers of parts and subcomponents of the jet can collaborate. The individual suppliers are empowered to come up with the best designs they can. Boeing’s job is as a convener and catalyst for the network. The approach reflects their belief that their core competency is in design coordination, assembly and marketing of planes. The belief is that each supplier is more expert in their field than Boeing and, therefore, better equipped to optimize and innovate its piece of the overall product.

But the experiment is not going too well. It hasn’t failed but it has had a lot of delays and problems. So there are lots of people critiquing the whole project. Of special note are the critics who fear that Boeing is letting loose the knowledge of how to build big airplanes and that they (and by extension the U.S.) will never get back. This is not that different than so many other U.S. industries that have outsourced and moved more and more of their production off shore.

Here’s my position. Read more

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