Jim Ludwig of Integral Input made a very thoughtful response to my posting Account for Intangible Cost, Not Value
I agree with Jim wholeheartedly that there are many aspects of intangibles that cannot be measured and an obsession with measurement can be counterproductive (like counting calls completed by a call center rather than customer satisfaction). The [...]

At the recent conference on Intangible Assets at the National Academies, the discussion “Intangibles in the Firm” consisted of two presentations, one by Baruch Lev, Professor of Accounting and Finance at the Stern School at NYU, and the other by Ron Bossio, Senior Project Manager from the Financial Accounting Standards Board.
It is not surprising [...]

I just finished this book by two consultants from McKinsey, Lowell L. Bryan and Claudia I. Joyce. Even if you haven’t read Mobilizing Minds, you may have been exposed to one of its key recommendations: that corporations use profit per employee as the “primary metric of profitability.” I disagree with this simplistic recommendation: it seems [...]

More of my observations on the U.S. National Academies conference on Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth. and the presentations  made that day.
There were two panel discussions on the role of government around intangibles. Many of the presentations were rich with data, and I recommend them to those [...]

More of my observations on the U.S. National Academies conference on Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth. and the presentations  made that day.
This was the discussion of the day closest to my experience and practice so I was especially interested in these presentations.
I recommend the discussions by Laurie [...]

More of my observations on the U.S. National Academies conference on Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth. and the presentations made that day.
The introduction to the day’s proceedings was made by Cynthia Glassman, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Ms. Glassman’s remarks [...]

More of my observations on the U.S. National Academies conference on Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth. and the presentations made that day.
The discussion of the challenges and approaches to macroeconomic measurement of intangibles was greatly strengthened by the presentations of perspectives from not only the U.S., [...]

I recently attended the conference at the U.S. National Academies entitled Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth.
For those of us that have been working in the field, it was a gratifying moment to hear the keynote from Senator Jeff Bingaman (from my home state of New Mexico) challenging [...]

I have been following the story of the Tata Nano car for a number of years now. Tata is an amazing Indian conglomerate that operates in seven business sectors through dozens of companies.
The goal of the Nano team is to develop the world’s lowest cost car with a sticker price of roughly $2,500. A recent [...]

Ken Jarboe at the Athena Alliance has had two great posts recently about manufacturing. In Reversing the Offshoring Trend,he makes the point that high energy costs and the knowledge intensity of manufacturing are important factors that can outweigh the low labor costs that have moved so much production out of the U.S. In Workforce as [...]