I will be speaking at the ICAP Ocean Tomo event on March 24-25
March 8, 2010 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
ICAP Ocean Tomo will be hosting an IP Think Tank before their latest auction. I will be speaking and participating in a panel discussion about the Growing Intangible Asset Marketplace — Looking Beyond IP to Other Intangible Assets. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on emerging intangible capital investment opportunities like processes, networks and teams. I will also provide the IP professionals in the audience with a way of modeling the ecosystem that monetizes key intellectual property assets. The auction will be held at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco.
Please let me know if you are planning to be there or if you have any suggestions on folks I should meet while I am in San Francisco. Here’s the Spring Think Tank site.
Accounting for Intangibles - The Income Statement is Not the Answer
January 3, 2010 by Mary Adams · 1 Comment
I guess it’s time to talk about Accounting for Intangible Assets: There is Also an Income Statement by Stephen Penman. When this new paper first came out from the Center for Excellence in Accounting & Security Analysis at Columbia University, I decided to ignore it as an apology for current accounting standards–which are completely inadequate for the knowledge era.
But now the paper is getting more attention so I feel the need to answer it.
We are not talking about some theoretical accounting issue. 70% of the value of the average M&A deal is intangible. 60% of the average corporate investment is intangible. 50-80% of the average public company is intangible. That means that intangibles are ignored by accountants (the only real exception is in the case of a merger, when the lack of understanding ends up as 50% of the purchase price going to goodwill). None of this is helpful to the cause (and stated mission of Columbia’s center) of “excellence in accounting and security analysis.” Read more
Five Reasons to Focus on Optimizing Intangibles in 2010
December 16, 2009 by Mary Adams · 6 Comments
I am more and more convinced that 2010 will be the year of intangibles, intangible assets, intangible capital, intellectual capital, knowledge assets or whatever else you want to call them. There are five big reasons why:
- Intangibles already get the majority of your investment dollars. Estimates are that at least 60% of the money organizations invest in their future productive capacity is in intangibles. If you are already spending money, isn’t time you created a way to track intangibles performance? Read more
Don’t miss this program: Intangibles in the Coming Decade
December 16, 2009 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
I’m really excited about the program that we are developing at the Intangible Asset Finance Society for Friday, January 8 at noon EST.
Each of the leaders of the Society’s core committees is going to introduce what they view to be the top three critical issues for intangible asset management in the coming decade. Then we are going to have a discussion of the various themes put forward. This is a do-not-miss event. The call is free that day but you will have to pay to get the recording after the fact. More info and registration.
Intangibles Measurement
August 7, 2009 by Mary Adams · 4 Comments
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.
Intangible Asset Performance and Financial ResultsView more documents from Mary Adams.It builds on the recent video we posted that shows how to model the intangible factory. Read more
Call on Intangible Asset Risk and Reputation Metrics
July 7, 2009 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
Intangible Asset Finance Society Monthly Call: The President of Intellectual Capital Advisors, Mary Adams, will be hosting Nir Kossovsky on the IAFS monthly call this Friday, July 10th at noon EDT.
Nir is the Chief Executive & Director of Steel City Re, a firm focused on innovating new ways of managing intangible risk. He is also an entertaining speaker and will surely keep Mary on her toes! The call is free but you must register to get the conference information. Hope you can join us!
Program on Relationship Capital Risks this Friday
March 30, 2009 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
Mary Adams hosts the monthly call of the Intangible Asset Finance Society on the first Friday of every month. This month’s call on Friday, April 3rd at 12 noon EDT is entitled: IMPOSING PERFORMANCE (BEHAVIOR) REQUIREMENTS ON A COMMERCIAL PARTNER:
Cadbury Schweppes, Kellogg, Mattel - all iconic firms whose products, cash flows, and reputations have been sullied by their business partners through ethical breaches including melamine in milk, salmonella in peanut butter, and lead paint. Read more
Intangible Definitions
March 10, 2009 by Mary Adams · 3 Comments
One of the most frustrating parts of working in the “intangibles” management business is the lack of accepted definitions and (more importantly) shared understanding of what we mean.
Just the name is challenging. Here are a few of the most common: Read more
The Rush to Discount Intangibles
February 13, 2009 by Mary Adams · 2 Comments
Ignorance and lack of thinking about intangibles drives me crazy. Here’s an example from Bloomberg about Wells Fargo which David Reilly contends here has “pumped up” its equity with “squishy” assets, in this case a mortgage-servicing right which:
…reflects the value today of future income from a bank’s right to collect and process payments on the mortgages it sells to investors. At issue is whether investors should look at this asset the same way they do other, more tangible, assets such as cash, loans and bond holdings.
They probably shouldn’t. While that would make today’s strained balance sheets look even worse, especially at Wells, it would give investors a more realistic view of their true financial strength…
The problem is that the value of servicing rights is more difficult to estimate, let alone depend on, in today’s tumultuous markets and economy. That has ladled uncertainty onto what is usually a pretty steady business.
Sounds very sound on the surface right? Except that the uncertainty affecting intangibles such as these (which are assets with an income stream attached) is not greater than the uncertainty surrounding the value of loans and bonds. Just because you consider something “tangible” does not make it more “valuable” than an intangibles. It is lazy thinking to use these labels to evaluate assets. Intangibles are far more important in many businesses today than tangibles. Get used to it. Learn to get below the surface of labels and think about the true underlying risks.
Don’t Miss Program on Intangible Asset Governance
February 4, 2009 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
I am hosting a conference call for the Intangible Asset Finance Society this Friday at 3:30 PM EST. The guest speaker is Cathy Reese, head of corporate litigation for the international patent law firm, Fish & Richardson. Here’s the description of the call:
In light of recent developments in business law, corporate directors and officers are more likely now than ever before in history to be held personally liable for losses suffered by the corporation related to mismanagement of its intangible assets. Read more
