Making Sense of Intellectual Capital

Peter Drucker has introduced us all to the knowledge era, where knowledge is the primary resource and intangibles (intellectual capital resources and assets) are now largely recognized as the most important sources of organizations' competitive advantage. With the recognition of the importance of Intangibles comes the problem of how to properly identify them and assign them a value within the corporation. This is an area of concern in 5 fields: 1) accounting and financial reporting, 2) performance measurement and management, 3) valuation in the finance field, 4) the Human Resources field in terms of management, strategy, and planning, and 5) Intellectual Capital. Over the past eight years, over 25 methods have been proposed for the valuation of intangibles coming out of these 5 fields.

In this book, Andriessen evaluates 25 existing methods of intangible valuation according to highly developed criteria. In performing his evaluations, Andriessen synthesizes the state of the art research from these fields based on extensive research. He then presents his own method for valuing intangibles, which he began developing and testing as a Senior Manager at KPMG Knowledge Advisory Services in The Netherlands. He relates six case studies in which this method was tested in actual companies, carefully reviews the results of his tests, and then concludes by offering a new and improved method for valuing intangibles in his Weightless Wealth Toolkit, a complete step-by-step process for identifying, valuing, and managing Intangibles to help managers operate successfully in the Intangible Economy.