CFO Magazine published my comments on reputation
September 1, 2010 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
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: Reputation in the Post-BP Marketplace
July 7, 2010 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
“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
Relationship Capital: Brands versus Reputation
June 25, 2010 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
The final category of relationship capital (after customers and partners) is brand and reputation capital.
Brand is how your customers see your products. Reputation is about how all your stakeholders view your entire operation. Each is important. Brand communication is generally thought to leave more room for definition by the holder. That is, I can influence how you see my brand through my marketing and management of the customer experience. But both brand and reputation are as much about your stakeholders’ knowledge of you as it is your knowledge of them. This shared knowledge is what make brand and reputation part of relationship capital. 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
This Friday: IAFS Call on Measuring Reputation
September 29, 2009 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
On Friday (10/2) at noon EDT, I will once again be hosting the monthly Mission: Intangible conversation for the Intangible Asset Finance Society.
Our guest will be Gary Williams, CEO of wRatings. Gary’s firm provides ratings of more than 5,000 companies that are built, in part, on consumer and business customer reviews of the companies’ offerings.
As you know, I believe that reputation is the new bottom line so I am especially looking forward to this interview. There is no charge to participate in the call but you must register in advance. Recordings are also available for a small charge.
Shareholder Value is Bankrupt: What Will Replace It?
September 23, 2009 by Mary Adams · 3 Comments
Earlier this year, Jack Welch made the statement to the Financial Times that “shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world…your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.” This is part of a FT series on the Future of Capitalism.A couple weeks ago, the Aspen Institute released a paper signed by a group of 28 executives that included Warren Buffet (CEO, Berkshire Hathaway), Lou Gerstner Retired CEO, IBM) and John Bogle (Founder, The Vanguard Group). The paper entitled, Overcoming Short-termism, opens by saying: Read more
Intangibles Measurement V: Reputation is the New Bottom Line
September 3, 2009 by Mary Adams · 4 Comments
There are huge challenges all over our economy–in health care, in transportation, in agriculture, in energy production, in education, and on and on. These challenges will not be resolved by resorting to industrial era answers. To solve today’s problems, we need to build our national skills base for intangibles management.Which is a great segue to reputation, the last in my intangibles measurement series. The general reputation of business gets talked about a fair amount these days. As does the importance of reputation to individual companies. Today, the speed of communication makes it hard to hide even small mistakes. And sometimes small mistakes get blown out of proportion. The easy answer is to blame the media. There are two other answers that cannot be ignored. 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
Capital is Consensus
January 19, 2009 by Mary Adams · Leave a Comment
A great follow up to my post on Bananas and Industrialization is in this amazing post from Umair Haque How to Be a 21st Century Capitalist. He explains that:
20th century capitalism, in other words, marginally valued pure financial capital too highly, while marginally valuing human, natural, social, and cultural capital at zero - or, at the limit, negatively.
He goes on to say that “capital is consensus” which Read more
