Putting Networks to Use…in and for the organization

In all the discussions in recent weeks here on the growth of networks and organizations, it is hard to say which came first—the human or the technological connection. The shift to a knowledge economy has made it more and more attractive to connect and automate using IT and networking technologies. The rise of new forms of networking such as social media is actually fueling the trend. Probably some of the most interesting trends are the situations where the concept of networking is changing the whole vision of the business. If you begin to see your organization as a network, then the world literally opens up to you. Read more

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 Friday on Innovation from IAFS

I’ll be hosting a discussion on Friday at noon EST on Innovation: Hot Policy and Practice Issues. Guests will be Ken Jarboe of the Athena Alliance and Judith Giordan of Steel City Re. This is part of the on-going Mission: Intangible series for the Intangible Asset Finance Society. The call is free. Recording available later for a fee. More info and registration.

IC and Manufacturing

For a long time, intangible capital has been seen as some abstract and theoretical concept. Indeed, many people call it intellectual capital (here’s why we don’t use the term intellectual capital). But I spend a lot of my day every day refuting this. Intangible capital is very real and very practical. It drives how and why businesses get paid by their customers.

There were two great explanations of the practical side of IC in discussions of manufacturing in the past week. Read more

Huge Opportunities for Innovation — Corporate intangible capital is ready and waiting

Although the economic recovery is slowly building up steam, there is still a lot of work to do. For one thing, we need the economic recovery to turn into a jobs recovery. To do that, we need to start doing things differently. Solve new problems. In a word, innovate.

That’s why I am thankful that Ken Jarboe just revisited Business Week’s piece entitled Obama’s 25 Ways to Rebuild America. When I read this list, I get excited because it shows how many opportunities we have to fundamentally innovate and rebuild our economy: Read more

Using Intellectual Capital to Build Two Kinds of Factories

Yesterday, I drove my mother to the airport in Providence RI after a vacation on Cape Cod. The route from Cape Cod to Providence is a mini-history lesson. You pass through New Bedford which has been a fishing hub for centuries–and still is. You pass  through Fall River which has dozens of shuttered factories built during the industrial era. There is still some manufacturing going on there. But it doesn’t look very prosperous. Of course, neither is our country. We never really replaced all the jobs that those factories created in the last couple centuries.

I have been thinking about manufacturing a lot lately. Because I am increasingly convinced that it is the key to an economic recovery. But not like those old factories in Fall River. A whole new kind of manufacturing. Read more

R&D or Innovation

Tip of the hat to Ken Jarboe for a great post commenting on Booz’s Global Innovation 1000 here. Ken makes a great point that this list looks at R&D spending, which is not the same as innovation. It’s part of it but not the whole story.

Protect Us from Financial Innovation

Ken Jarboe at the Athena Alliance had more to say here about financial innovation and also links to an article here from last year by Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School who suggests the need for a  “Financial Product Safety Commission” saying “If it’s good enough for microwaves, it’s good enough for mortgages.”

I recently posted here about Much Reviled Financial Innovations. My point is that we cannot blame the technology of financial innovations and throw it away. But we should blame the people that are hawking poorly developed versions of the innovations. What Jarboe and Warren are saying is related: we need to be very systematic about looking under the hood of these innovations. Process and technology are intertwined in the intangible economy and we have to get better at analyzing both.

AMD Smarter Split in Two

Last week, hidden amid all the financial news was the announcement that AMD would be splitting itself in two. One part will focus on cutting edge design of microprocessors. The other, to be called The Foundry Company will leverage AMD’s existing manufacturing base to provide scalable, high quality manufacturing services.The new deal is financed by new investments by the government of Abu Dhabi.

AMD is not the first company to consider this strategy. But it is a good illustration of the kind of intellectual capital management that even asset-intensive companies need to consider. The business of Read more