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Intangible Capital:Putting Knowledge to Work in the 21st Century Organization Praeger (2010) Nearly every manager and business owner today struggles at one point or another with our fast-changing business world and its increasing focus on the invisible and abstract as opposed to the more tangible raw materials and tools and machines that most of us grew up with. It’s a new world for sure and a terrifically confusing one. Even the name we’ve given it is hard to pin down: “knowledge-based economy.” So what’s a manager or company owner to do, raised as she or he was in the concrete and tangible “old world” of things you can actually see? Fortunately, in their new book, Intangible Capital: Putting Knowledge to Work in the 21st Century Organization, just out from Praeger Press, authors Mary Adams and Michael Oleksak have come up with a few answers (and then some!). Their must-have, breakthrough guidebook is designed for everyone locked into this paradigm-altering battle, enabling readers to easily connect the explanatory text with the needs of their businesses, which in turn ensures a book offering both personal and expressly useful info and advice. Exercises at the end of each chapter seal the deal! Specifically Intangible Capital explains how businesspeople can go about building smarter and more successful companies by maximizing knowledge already contained inside their organizations. Because an estimated 70% of the value of the average company is intangible, and therefore dependent upon invisible assets to succeed, managers today need to learn how to utilize and take advantage of such previous unknowns as knowledge workers, information technology, innovation, networks, reputation, and performance management. As the authors themselves explain, “This book reflects how we have learned to apply the ideas of intangible capital to solving questions of how to grow, deal with change, and build long-term value in our clients’ companies”—that is, it’s a book rooted completely in firsthand experiences and direct research. The authors describe the goal of Intangible Capital as one that will arm business managers and owners with “understanding, and perhaps more importantly, practical tools and applications to help [their] organizations succeed in the knowledge era.” Kenan Jarboe, President of Athena Alliance, adds that what makes Intangible Capital a must-have guide is that Adams and Oleksak “clearly make the complex topic of intangible assets understandable and meaningful to businessmen, policymakers, and the general public.” Included in the book is a list of 10 basic building blocks used by traditional, industrial-era businesses and their knowledge-era equivalents, grounded precisely on the ideas of today's version of the factory (intangible capital) and on updated management methods and contemporary accounting. Adams and Oleksak also take pains to assure their readers that the current challenges which companies face around the globe are in fact opportunities for creating wealth and well-being. The answer to company-wide success today, they assert, lies “in the knowledge you already have and the knowledge that you can create through collaboration with the participants in your knowledge factory.” This kind of thinking suggests that Intangible Capital, occupying as it does such a unique perspective among the latest business books, offers its readers a most effective “handbook” for fully understanding this invisible new economy and surmounting its bewildering surprises. The book provides exercises at the end of each chapter. These exercises and many more resources are also available for download on the book website. About the authors:
To purchase your copy of Intangible Capital, visit the Books page on our website and click on the book cover. OUR CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY: Your email address stays with us. We do not sell or transfer ANY subscriber contact info. TO UNSUBSCRIBE: This mailing has been sent as a courtesy to help make your job of finding speakers easier! If you would like to be removed from this list, click on the "Safe Unsubscribe" link below. about emerson consulting group Ken Lizotte, Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO), 978-371-0442 Email Us |
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By
Mary Adams & Michael Oleksak 
Mary Adams CMC is cofounder of I-Capital Advisors and Trek Consulting LLC, and one of the leading global experts on intangible capital. She is also author of the Smarter Companies Blog and the creator of IC Knowledge.