What is Intellectual Capital & Why Should You Care?

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

I left engineering & business school well versed in how to take care of two kinds of assets:

• Financial, and
• Physical

Managing these kinds of capital is necessary, of course.

But in the world of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, is it sufficient?

Clearly not. Nowadays, many extremely valuable companies. Have negligible physical assets.

What they do have is Intellectual Capital -- the sum total of all the knowledge, experience, capability, creativity and urgency of all team members.

How well do we manage Intellectual Capital?

The answer is obvious, is it not?

Do we harvest this splendid resource?

Do today's organizations grasp the catastrophic effect of thoughtless layoffs, excessive exec compensation, stifling bureaucracy and all other IC killers?

There are many kinds of wealth -- financial, physical, intellectual, relational, reputation, time and so on.

These are inter-convertible. For example, my daughter Eleanor has time wealth (& Dad's wallet...), which she is transforming into capability wealth.

When she graduates, God willing, she'll translate capability wealth into financial wealth.

But Intellectual Capital differs from financial & physical capital in that,

1. It can be withheld, and
2. It can walk away,

IC is controlled by our team members.

Treating them like dirt is akin to hitting yourself in the face with a two-by-four.

How many corporations understand this?

Best,

Pascal


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