Unseen Wealth

Rating:
Summary: "Unseen Wealth" Helps Us See The Intangibles
Review: Just goes to show you how good Amazon's recomendation engine is - I wouldn't have gone looking for this title, but I am very glad I have it now. This slim volume (only 120 pages, including the notes) goes a long way towards illuminating the importance of "intangible" items such as intellectual capital, research and development, brand names, etc., are to the economic growth and wealth of our society. As the preface to chapter one, Blair and Wallman quote Attorney Lloyd Cutler (commenting on the proposed breakup of Microsoft), "Given that no company can establish a monopoly on brains, how do you keep the people that make it work? There are no tangible assets to divest. There is intellectual property and that's about it - and a building." Exactly! As the events of September 11th so horrily illustrated, you could burn the plant to the ground, but as long as you have a repository of your critical business information, you can resume business anywhere. How we view and deal with our intangible assets may be the one thing that determines whether a company survives or not. I think all managers everywhere should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: "Unseen Wealth" Helps Us See The Intangibles
Review: Just goes to show you how good Amazon's recomendation engine is - I wouldn't have gone looking for this title, but I am very glad I have it now. This slim volume (only 120 pages, including the notes) goes a long way towards illuminating the importance of "intangible" items such as intellectual capital, research and development, brand names, etc., are to the economic growth and wealth of our society. As the preface to chapter one, Blair and Wallman quote Attorney Lloyd Cutler (commenting on the proposed breakup of Microsoft), "Given that no company can establish a monopoly on brains, how do you keep the people that make it work? There are no tangible assets to divest. There is intellectual property and that's about it - and a building." Exactly! As the events of September 11th so horrily illustrated, you could burn the plant to the ground, but as long as you have a repository of your critical business information, you can resume business anywhere. How we view and deal with our intangible assets may be the one thing that determines whether a company survives or not. I think all managers everywhere should read this book.