Intangibles and Airplane Security

Last night on NPR, I listened to a report on the heightened security measures that are being put in place in airports around the world.

Listening to the report, I couldn’t help but think that our leaders are getting the balance between tangible and intangible efforts wrong. Read more

CIO’s–and CFO’s–Need to “Get Real”

There is an interesting report at CFO.com called CFOs to CIOs: Get Real.

My response is that CFO’s need to “get real” too.

One of the biggest barriers between CFO’s and CIO’s is how they view the cost of projects. CFO’s are trapped inside an accounting model that expenses a lot of investments. Recent macro data suggested that US businesses spent $1.7 trillion on intangibles versus $1.2 on tangibles. For the most part, intangibles get expensed, tangibles get capitalized. Many  of these intangibles are related to IT-enabled systems and/or processes. Read more