Future Value Drivers

LEVERAGING YOUR INTANGIBLE ASSETS

USING A FIVE-STEP PROCESS
Bernard Marr

What is the issue?

In most (if not all) organizations, intangibles are the supreme drivers of future
success. The problem is that most companies struggle to identify, measure, and
manage these vital assets.

Why is it important?
The future success and value of your organization depends on intangibles such
as customer relationships, brand image, know-how, or intelligence data. An
organization’s success hinges on its ability to identify and leverage these intangibles.

What can be done?

To ensure future success, organizations need to identify, map, measure, manage,
and report on their intangibles.

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING GUIDELINE GUIDELINE

CONTENTS
Intangibles as Drivers of Future Success 2
What is RAISE and How does it Apply to Intangibles? 2
What are Intangibles? 3
Five Steps to Successful Intangible Management 5
Step 1: Identifying Intangibles 5
Step 2: Mapping Intangible Value Drivers 7
Step 3: Measuring Intangibles 10
Step 4: Managing Intangibles 14
Step 5: Reporting on Intangibles 15
Additional Sources of Information 18
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Intangibles as Drivers of Future Success

Today’s financial performance is a result of having (or not having) done the right things in the past.
Success is a result of having in place the right intangible elements, such as (a) people with the right
competencies and knowledge, (b) innovative ideas, (c) a respected brand and a good reputation,
(d) strong relationships with suppliers or partners, (e) possession of critical patents and data (such as
market or customer intelligence), or (f) an energetic and innovative organizational culture. It is exactly
factors like these that will determine future business success.

In today’s world, intangibles have moved from the periphery to the core of modern organizations. A
recent survey commissioned by the consulting firm Accenture confirmed most executives around the
world believe intangibles are critical to the future success of their organizations. However, the same
survey finds most of those executives also agree their current approaches to measuring and managing
intangibles are either poor or non-existent.

Organizations therefore require better understanding, measures, and reporting mechanisms to improve
(a) the external communication of the organization’s value to its stakeholders and (b) enhance their
internal management of these critical drivers of organizational performance. The former is about
producing better external reports that allow key stakeholders to understand the real value and per-
formance of organizations. The latter is about better internal management of intangibles in order to
improve organizational performance and drive future value creation. This guideline will address both
the external reporting and the internal management perspective, and therefore provide the reader with a
five-step process to help organizations understand, measure, and report their intangible value drivers.

What is RAISE and How does it Apply to Intangibles?

In the current global economy, the business environment is always changing. Some changes are so
dramatic that everybody notices them but others may slowly creep up over the years until they can
no longer be ignored.

Fortunately, leveraging intangibles is one such tactic (in an arsenal of many) that an organization may
employ to address how it will respond to these ever-evolving business challenges. Intangibles can
also ensure an organization focuses on what matters most (versus reactively responding to “fires” or
“crises”) — its customers or core stakeholders — in an effort to respond to external market forces and
focus an organization’s efforts.

A useful ideology for showcasing the importance of intangibles is CPA Canada’s RAISE philosophy
(where Resilient + Adaptive + Innovative = Sustainable Enterprises). By adopting a resilient, adaptive
and innovative philosophy as a foundation for our profession, we will not only be poised to take advan-
tage of the present landscape of unprecedented change but also uniquely position us to champion the
creation of sustainable enterprises for years to come. Ultimately, the RAISE philosophy can help guide
CPAs and organizations (or enterprises) towards a unique strategy that provides an ongoing sustain-
able edge. The key drivers are explored next.

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Organizations today must demonstrate their resilience in the face of constant turmoil and disruption.
They need to respond quickly to these constant and unexpected external changes while at the same
time sustaining regular business operations. Intangibles refocuses an organization’s efforts back to
what is important as these crises arise and enables organizations to isolate such problems proactively
so that strategic focus and awareness are maintained.

Organizations more than ever need to be adaptive in their ability to adjust to these ongoing market
shifts in the competitive landscape. Given this changed environment, they need to be nimble and
flexible enough to “proactively” respond to any and all competitive or market changes. Intangibles
employs methods to adapt.

Opportunities to innovate are typically a primary contributor to organizational success and longevity.
However, it is one area that many fail to adequately explore or execute upon. Intangibles are one such
vehicle that can be leveraged to communicate the importance of innovation in achieve its strategic
and operational objectives.

Embracing such drivers as key components of an organization’s strategic and operational plans and
decisions, ensures an organization’s (or enterprise’s) sustainable competitive edge. Combining the resil-
ient, adaptive and innovative drivers of success results in a unique and robust strategy for adopting and
implementing intangibles as future value drivers as explored throughout the course of this guideline.

What are Intangibles?

Intangibles are one of three types of company assets, the other two being: physical (buildings, machin-
ery, equipment, etc.) and financial (investments, cash, etc.). Intangibles are defined as non-tangible
assets that are attributed to an organization and that contribute to the delivery of organizational
success. Intangibles can be split into three component classes: (1) human capital, (2) structural capital,
and (3) relational capital (Figure 1).

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FIGURE 1: INTANGIBLES

PHYSICAL ASSETS FINANCIAL ASSETS

INTANGIBLE ASSETS

HUMAN CAPITAL RELATIONAL CAPITAL STRUCTURAL CAPITAL

• Knowledge and know-how • Formal relationships • Brand names

• Skills • Informal relationships • Data and information
• Work-related experience • Social networks • Patents
• Work-related • Customer engagement • Copyrights
competencies • Partnerships • Design rights
• Emotional intelligence • Brand image • Trade secrets
• Entrepreneurial spirit • Corporate reputation • Management philosophy
• Flexibility and • Customer loyalty • Corporate culture
changeability • Licensing agreements • Management processes
• Employee loyalty • Distribution agreements • Corporate values
• Employee satisfaction • Joint ventures • Information infrastructure
• Employee engagement

Human Capital
The principal subcomponents of an organization’s human capital are naturally its workforce’s skill-sets,
know-how, depth of expertise, and breadth of experience. Human resources can be thought of as the liv-
ing and thinking part of intangibles. Human resources include the (a) skills, knowledge, and competencies
of employees, as well as (b) know-how in certain fields that are important to the success of the enterprise,
plus the aptitudes and attitudes of its staff. Employee loyalty, motivation, and flexibility will often be sig-
nificant factors too, because a firm’s “expertise and experience pool” is developed over a period of time.

Relational Capital
Relational capital looks at the relationships that exist between an organization and any outside party,
both key individuals and other organizations. These can include customers, intermediaries, employees,
suppliers, alliance partners, regulators, pressure groups, communities, creditors, or investors. Rela-
tionships tend to fall into two categories — those that are formalized through, for example, contractual
obligations with major customers and partners, and those that are more informal.

Structural Capital
Structural capital covers a broad range of vital factors. Foremost among these factors are usually
the organization’s essential operating processes, the way it is structured, its policies, its information
flows and content of its databases, its leadership and management style, its culture and its incentive
schemes, but can also include legally protected intangible resources. These resources can be sub-
categorized into culture, practices and routines, and intellectual property:
• Culture resources embrace categories such as corporate culture, organizational values, and
management philosophies.

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• Practices and routines can be important organizational resources. These include internal practices,
virtual networks and review processes; these can be formal or informal procedures and tacit rules.
• Intellectual property — owned or legally protected intangible resources — is becoming increasingly
important. Patents and trade secrets have become a key element of competition in high-tech orga-
nizations. Here, intellectual property is defined as the sum of resources such as patents, copyrights,
trademarks, brands, registered design, trade secrets, database content, and processes whose
ownership is granted to the organization by law.

Five Steps to Successful Intangible Management

There are five key steps for successfully managing intangibles (Figure 2).

The first step is to identify an organization’s

FIGURE 2: FIVE-STEP INTANGIBLE MANAGEMENT
intangibles. It is important to understand that
MODEL
not all intangibles are automatically valuable to
an organization. An intangible is only valuable if
IDE NTIF YING INTANG IB LES
it helps to deliver organizational objectives and
future success.
MAPPING INTANG IB LE VALU E DRIVE RS
Step two assesses the relevance of intangibles,
by mapping the strategy (with its intangible value
drivers) onto a strategic map. M E ASU RING INTANG IB LES

The third step is to extract meaningful manage-

ment information from measuring intangibles.
MANAG ING INTANG IB LES

In step four, this management information can

then be used to analyze performance and to
RE PORTING ON INTANG IB LES
develop management insights that inform orga-
nizational decision making and learning.

Finally, in step five, external reports can be produced to communicate the value of intangibles to inter-
nal and external stakeholders.

STEP 1 Identifying Intangibles

The first step, an inventory check, requires identifying an organization’s intangibles. The categorization
outlined above can be used to facilitate a discussion about the current stock of intangibles. It can be
used to create a template that informs people about the different categories, and prompts them to
think about their different types of intangibles (Figure 3).

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FIGURE 3: IDENTIFYING RESOURCE STOCK

INTANGIBLES WITH A
RESOURCE EXAMPLES OF SIGNIFICANT PRESENCE
CATEGORY SUB-CATEGORIES IN OUR ORGANIZATION

HUMAN Knowledge, education, technical knowledge and expertise,

CAPITAL skills, know-how, attitudes, experience, motivation, flexibility, —
commitment, creativity, etc.

RELATIONAL Customer relationships, supplier relationships, reputation,

CAPITAL image, trust, contractual relationships, informal relationships, —
alliances, relationships with regulators, partners, etc.

STRUCTURAL Processes, tacit routines, organizational structure, governance

CAPITAL and management approaches, organizational culture, social
capital, shared identity, patents, brand names, copyrights, —
trade secrets, codified information and knowledge, e.g. in
databases or process manuals, etc.

PHYSICAL Property, plants, location of buildings, information and

CAPITAL communication infrastructure, machines, equipment, natural —
resources, physical infrastructure, office design, etc.

FINANCIAL Cash, investments, bonds, loans, budget, etc.

—
CAPITAL

Intangibles can be identified through conducting interviews, facilitated workshops, or via mail or
online surveys. From experience, individual face-to-face interviews or surveys work best, as they
allow everyone to have a say, free of the suppressing influence of stronger or more dominant participants
in workshops.

Intangibles Underpin Competencies

Even though most organizations possess a wide variety of intangibles, some will contribute more to
the delivery of future success than others. This is because (a) the value of intangibles depends on an
organization’s specific strategy, and (b) intangibles dynamically interact with each other and depend
on other resources.
• The value of intangibles depends on an organization’s specific strategy. For example, the know-how
of building engines is essential for a car manufacturer, but of little value to a financial services firm;
likewise, the competencies associated with creating light and durable composite materials so essen-
tial for successful Formula One motor racing teams is of little value to a telecommunications firm.
• Intangible elements are not static — they dynamically interact with each other, and often depend
on other resources for their value. For example, the brand awareness and reputation of an online
retailer, although critically important, would rapidly fade without its efficient distribution net- work,
well-designed internal processes, and strong supplier relationships. It is therefore impossible to
value a brand name without taking into account all other important factors, such as reputation,
people, processes, etc.

To understand the role and strategic importance of intangibles in any organization requires a clear
understanding of the firm’s strategic direction and objectives.

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Assessing the Strategic Value of Intangibles

The relative importance or strategic value of intangibles (Figure 4) can only be assessed in the
context of the existing organization. The questions to ask are: “How important are our different intangi-
bles to achieving our overall strategy?” Or, “How strong are our existing resources and how can we
utilize them more effectively?” Independently assessing (a) the importance of the different resources
to delivery of your strategy, and (b) your resource strengths, allows organizations to perform a gap
analysis. This lets you understand whether you are nurturing the appropriate intangibles to drive future
organization success, or whether you are under- or over-investing in certain areas.

Taken together, the strategic value of intangibles fulfilled both the resilient and adaptive drivers in
RAISE as the overall objectives were meant to be strategic and long-lasting, able to withstand and
adapt to the ever-evolving demands of both customers and the changing dynamic of the market.

FIGURE 4: ASSESSING THE IMPORTANCE OF INTANGIBLES

RELATIVE STRENGTHS RELATIVE IMPORTANCE

OF THESE RESOURCES OF THESE RESOURCES TO
IDENTIFIED ASSETS IN OUR ORGANIZATION DELIVERING THE STRATEGY

E X AM PLES 0 = Not at all Important 0 = Not at all Important

10 = Very Important 10 = Very Important

Our specifi c
7 10
subject knowledge

Our perceived
4 9
reputation

Relationships
4 6
with key partners

Our patent for X 9 2

Our brand X 8 7

Etc.

STEP 2 Mapping Intangible Value Drivers

The aim of this second step is to create a visual map of how the intangibles support the strategy in
your organization. Mapping your key value drivers into a visual map has two primary functions. The
first is to ensure the strategy with all its intangible value drivers is integrated and coherent; the sec-
ond is to enable easy communication of the strategy and the role and importance of intangibles in

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delivering that strategy. Such a visual map brings together the key elements of an organizational strat-
egy, namely its mission and vision, its strategic deliverables, as well as the underpinning intangibles.
• Vision and mission identify an organization’s purpose and its roles and deliverables. A mission
statement articulates the organizational purpose, basically why the organization exists, what it
does, and for whom. A vision statement outlines the goals and aspirations for future results. It
creates a mental picture of a specific medium-term target and is as a source of inspiration.
• Strategic deliverables are the vital few things an organization has to deliver (e.g., to its customers)
to achieve its vision and mission. They essentially define (a) what an organization should focus on,
and (b) what differentiates it from others.
• The enabling value drivers are the other strategic objectives an organization requires to deliver
its strategic deliverables and, ultimately, its vision and mission. These enabling value drivers derive
from the assessment of the organization’s asset architecture and intangibles.

These components are then placed in a cause-and-effect relationship and displayed on a single piece
of paper to create a completely integrated and coherent picture of the strategy. A strategic map there-
fore visually represents an organization’s unique strategy at a specific time. This means that such maps
have limited lifespans and have to be revised regularly (usually annually). The value of the drivers comes
to the fore when the past is not a good predictor for the future, and disruptive change occurs (which
demonstrates an organization’s need to demonstrate their resilience and adaptability — as part of the
RAISE philosophy). The basic template of such a strategic map is shown in Figure 5.

Many organizations use the strategy map tem-

FIGURE 5: STRATEGY MAP TEMPLATE
plate to map their intangibles and define (a)
financial objectives, customer-related objectives,
MISSION/ VISION
and internal process-related objectives, as well
as (b) learning and growth objectives (includ-
ing human capital, organizational capital, and STR ATEG IC DE LIVE R AB LES
information capital). See Figure 6 for the generic
strategy map template.
INTANG IB LE (AN D TANG IB LE) VALU E DRIVE RS

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FIGURE 6: STRATEGY MAP TEMPLATE

LONG-TERM SHAREHOLDER VALUE

FINANCIAL
PERSPECTIVE PRODUC TIVIT Y STR ATEGY G ROW TH STR ATEGY

Improve Increase Expand revenue Enhance

cost structure asset utilization opportunities customer value

CUSTOMER VALUE PROPOSITION

CUSTOMER
PERSPECTIVE PRODUC T AN D SE RVICE AT TRIB UTES RE L ATIONSHIP IMAG E

Price quality — Availability — Selection — Functionality Service — Partnership Brand

OPE R ATIONS CUSTOM E R IN NOVATION REG U L ATORY

MANAG E M E NT MANAG E M E NT PROCESSES AN D SOCIAL
PROCESSES PROCESSES PROCESSES
• Supply • Selection • Identify • Environment
INTERNAL • Production • Acquisition opportunity • Safety and
PERSPECTIVE • Distribution • Retention • R&D portfolio health
• Risk • Growth • Design/develop • Employment
management • Launch • Community

INTANGIBLE ASSETS

H U MAN IN FORMATION ORGANIZATIONAL

CAPITAL CAPITAL CAPITAL
LEARNING
& GROWTH
• Employee skills • Databases • Culture
PERSPECTIVE
• Employee talents • Information systems • Leadership
• Know-how • Networks • Alignment
• Information • Infrastructure • Teamwork

(Source: Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton)

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STEP 3 Measuring Intangibles

After identifying and mapping the intangible value drivers, organizations can start measuring them.
We often have a misconception that intangibles are difficult or impossible to measure. This is not the
case. Many tools and techniques are available to measure intangibles, and it is most probably easier
to measure than you think. This section outlines a model that will assist you in developing metrics for
your intangible value drivers.

Figure 7 shows the indicator design model. It is a decision-support model that starts with identifying
which intangible you want to measure. Every intangible value driver on the strategy map should be mea-
surable — therefore, drivers should be tested using the indicator design model. After you have decided on
the intangible driver to measure, it is important to decide whether it is worth measuring in the first place.

FIGURE 7: INDICATOR DESIGN MODEL

Which value driver do we want to measure?

Do we have a key performance question to answer?

YES NO Don’t measure, rethink!

Can we use existing methods to measure it?

NO
Design new YES
measurement method

• instrument?
Can we collect meaningful data?
• source of data?
• formula?
• frequency? YES NO
• targets/benchmarks?
• who measures?
• expiry date/revision data? Does it help us answer our KPQ?
• audience
• reporting YES NO

Start measuring Are the measurement costs and efforts justified?

YES NO

Measuring the performance of anything should provide us with meaningful information that helps
to reduce uncertainty, and enables us to learn about the intangible value driver and its performance.
Measuring performance should help us to make better informed decisions that enable us to improve
our performance. An excellent way of determining whether an indicator is worth measuring is to estab-
lish the question(s) the indicators will help to answer. So-called key performance questions (KPQs) are

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designed to identify what managers want to know about the various intangibles. KPQs make sure any
measure has a clear purpose. If there is no question that needs to be answered, then there is no need
for measurement.

Having identified that a question should be answered, you should think about how to collect the mea-
surement data. At this point, you can assume this intangible value driver has probably been measured
before, and that someone has designed a method for measuring it, so don’t reinvent the wheel. Do
some research on already developed measurement methods. This can usually be done with simple
Internet searches.

If methods already exist (the most likely case), then it is important to assess whether any of them are
appropriate to use. Not all methods will be useful for your purpose. If no appropriate methods seem to
exist, you will need to design new measurement methods.

For both existing and newly developed methods, it is important to assess (a) whether it is possible
to collect meaningful data, and (b) whether the data will help to answer your questions. Finally, it is
important to assess whether the resulting data warrants the cost and efforts of measurement (which
can be significant).

If (a) no meaningful data can be collected, (b) the data is not really helping you to answer the KPQ,
or (c) the costs are not justified, then it is necessary to rethink and design different indicators.

After you have developed indicators, it is necessary to identify (a) the measurement instrument, i.e., how
the data will be collected (e.g., survey or interviews), the source of the data, (c) the formula used to
compute the indicator, (d) the frequency of measurement, (e) any targets or benchmarks, (f) who will
measure, (g) how long the indicator will be collected before it needs to be reviewed, (h) the target
audience for this indicator, and (i) the reporting formats.

Tools to Measure Intangibles

Here are some commonly used measurement methods to measure intangibles in business:

• Surveys and questionnaires provide a relatively inexpensive way of collecting data on intangi-
bles from a large pool of people who might be at different locations. This can be done via mail,
email, Internet, or telephone. One big problem with this is the huge influx of surveys over the past
few years, as more and more organizations require data for their nonfinancial indicators. As a
consequence, it is now harder to persuade people to complete a survey. It is always a good idea
to reduce the amount of time and effort required to collect performance data, not only for your
organization, but also for your customers, employees, suppliers, etc. Surveys are regularly used
to measure intangible value drivers such as employee engagement, corporate culture, customer
attitudes, innovation climate, or brand image.

• In-depth interviews are guided conversations with people, rather than the structured queries
found in surveys. They put forward open-ended (how, why, what) questions in a conversational,
friendly, and non-threatening manner. Interviews can be conducted face-to-face, or via telephone
or video conference. Interviews, which enable interaction directly with respondents, may provide
new insights about performance. They provide examples, stories, and critical incidents that are

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helpful in understanding performance more holistically. In-depth interviews can, for example,
be used to assess intangible value drivers such as relationships with key customers, suppliers, or
partners. In addition to providing a performance score, they can also yield invaluable contextual
information about, for example, how to improve relationships between key customers, partners,
or employees.

• Focus groups are facilitated group discussions (5–20 participants) in which participants can
express and share their ideas, opinions, and experiences. They provide a unique and interactive
way to gather information, and allow the collection of rich, qualitative information. Focus groups
are good ways of assessing employee- and customer-related intangible value drivers such as cus-
tomer experience, customer or staff engagement, team working climate, or trust.

• Mystery shopping approaches assess a service by using a “secret shopper” posing as a client or
customer. Some companies hire their own mystery shoppers; other firms hire external suppliers to
provide this service. The beauty of this assessment approach is that it is less intrusive than surveys
or interviews. Many retail organizations, banks, and hotels have used mystery shopping to assess
customer experience. Trained mystery shoppers can also be used for many other intangible assess-
ments, such as assessing an organization’s culture or atmosphere.

• External assessments are independent surveys that measure the brand recognition, customer
awareness, or market share in specific segments. An independent organization creates a set of
criteria, and then measures everyone against these criteria to assess, for example, the relative
position or values of brands or corporate reputations. The advantage of external and independent
assessments is the data they provide allows comparisons between organizations. However, exter-
nal assessments might be too generic, and often use assessment approaches that don’t provide
the answers to the internal KPQs. External assessments are best used to supplement, cross-check,
and validate other internal indicators.

• Peer-to-peer evaluation is the assessment of performance by participants who vote on or assess

each other’s performance, whether openly or anonymously. This enables people to learn from each
other, and to consider their own performance from the perspective of others. Peer-to-peer evalua-
tions have been successfully used to gauge intangible value drivers, including trust, knowledge and
experience, teamwork, and relationships.

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The Indicator Template

The following template can be used when designing indicators (Figure 8).

FIGURE 8: INDICATOR AND INDEX DESIGNTEMPLATE

TEMPLATE FOR DESIGNING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Intangible element being Name the strategic element from the strategy map that is being assessed
assessed with this indicator.

Key performance Name the question(s) related to performance that this indicator is helping
question(s) to answer.

Ownership/person Identify the person(s) or function(s) responsible for the delivery/performance

responsible/champion/ of the measured strategic element.
coordinator

Indicator name Pick a short and clear indicator name.

Data collection method/ Describe how the data will be collected.

instrument:

Source of data Describe where the data will come from.

Frequency Describe how frequently this indicator will be collected. If possible, include
a forward schedule.

Formula/scale/ Describe how performance levels will be determined. This can be qualitative, in
assessment which case the assessment criteria need to be identified, or it can be numerical
or using a scale, in which case the formula or scales with categories need to be
identified.

Targets and Identification of targets, benchmarks, and thresholds for traffic lighting.
performance thresholds

Data entry Name the person or role responsible for collecting and updating the data.

Expiry/revision date Identify the validity date of this indicator, or when it will have to be revised.

How much will it cost? Estimate the costs incurred in introducing and maintaining this indicator.

REPORTING

Audience/access Name the key audience for this indicator and clarify who will have access to it.

Reporting frequency Outline how frequently this indicator will be reported to the different audiences
(if applicable).

Reporting formats Describe how the performance indicator will be presented (numerical,
graphical, narrative formats). Here, it is good to especially think about visual
representation that makes it easy to understand and digest.

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The top part of the template states the intangible element that is being assessed, the KPQ, and own-
ership of the question. Ownership identifies the person(s) or function(s) responsible for managing the
intangible value driver that is being assessed. Every indicator should be given a clear name.
• The data collection method describes the method or instrument used to assess the intangible
value driver.
• Source of the data identifies where the data comes from.
• Frequency of data collection identifies how often the data for that indicator should be collected.
• Formula/scale/assessment identifies what formula, scale or assessment criteria are used to deter-
mine performance.
• Targets and performance thresholds identify the desired level of performance in a specified
time- frame (e.g., 5% increase of market share by the end of March next year).
• Data entry identifies the person, function, or external agency responsible for data collection and
data updates.
• Expiry/revision date indicates how long the indicator is valid or when the indicator has to be
revised.
• Estimated costs calculates the costs involved in collecting the data and maintaining the measure.
• Reporting identifies how to report the performance indicator, identifying the audience, access
restrictions, the reporting frequency, and reporting formats.

When it comes to intangibles, a single performance indicator will rarely give us sufficient information.
We therefore recommend combining different measures into one index. This provides organizations
with a more rounded and balanced view on their intangibles. Human health allows us to illustrate the
point. Only taking your blood pressure to assess your health would not be sufficient. However, taking
blood pressure, cholesterol and blood tests, together with a number of other tests, and combining
these into a health index, provides a much more balanced and reliable assessment of physical health.
The same is true in organizations. If an organization wants to measure customer relationships, a num-
ber of indicators such as loyalty, trust, commitment, profitability, and referrals can be measured and
combined into a customer relationship index.

STEP 4 Managing Intangibles

Measures allow organizations to manage. This applies to management of intangibles in the same way
it applies to anything else. Without relevant assessments, it is impossible (a) to understand current
performance levels, (b) to know whether the intangible assets have improved or deteriorated, and
(c) to understand whether any activities and initiatives have affected performance or value. Organi-
zations with meaningful performance information about their intangibles can use it to test and review
strategy and to manage risks associated with their intangibles.

Test and Review the Strategic Impact of Intangibles

The strategic assumptions expressed in the strategy maps are principally just that — assumptions. The
performance data derived from the performance indicators can be used for that purpose, and the
strategy map, or parts of it, can be verified and tested (accounting for both the resiliency and adapt-
ability drivers in the RAISE philosophy).

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Organizations can identify subsets of their causal logic or individual linkages between elements of the
map, and then “test” those using statistical tests such as regression and correlation analyses. Mapping
and verifying how intangible value drivers impact firm performance is powerful, and can support reviews
of the strategy. These reviews can lead to different resource allocations, outsourcing or insourcing,
and decisions whether to buy or sell intangibles, as well as mergers and de-mergers. Intangibles that
are central to the strategy of organizations need to be tightly managed internally.

The absence of important intangibles can lead to purchasing, licensing-in, or merger and acquisition
decisions. At the same time, if an organization possesses intangible assets that are not relevant to the
strategy, then decisions could be made to sell or monetize this in other ways.

Manage Intangible Asset Risks

After identifying the critical intangible value drivers, organizations need to manage any related risks.
Although companies are familiar with the management of financial and disaster risks, the risk man-
agement of intangible assets is usually underdeveloped. When it comes to intangibles there are risks
such as:

• Human capital risks: A key risk that is regularly overlooked in organizations is risk related to its
staff and to the knowledge they possess. Organizations are often unaware some individuals with
critical knowledge and expertise could walk out any day.

• Structural capital risks: Risks to structural resources include (a) threats to organizational processes
and routines, and (b) threats posed by losing database contents and software because of hackers
and viruses. There is also an increasingly common risk of intellectual property theft, as well as the
danger to organizational success posed by more powerful regulatory regimes that are rightly intol-
erant of “old school” exploitation practices.

• Relational capital risks: In today’s net worked economy, relationships are crucial ingredients for all
organizations in both the private and public sectors. Their reputation hangs on these vital relation-
ships, and often the risk needs to be managed throughout the supply chain that helps to deliver
the products and/or services the organization sells or provides.

Using classic risk management tools (such as risk logs and risk matrices) for the risks associated with
intangibles will allow an organization to assess and mitigate any potential threats to their business.

STEP 5 Reporting on Intangibles

The final step is then to report on your intangibles, which can be done for different reasons. However,
they all share one key objective, which is to provide information about the intangibles of an organiza-
tion to its stakeholders. However, different stakeholders have different information needs:
• To make better informed investment decisions, shareholders and investors want to know more
about the intangibles an organization possesses.
• Employees want to understand the health and position of their organization, and today,
intangibles are essential elements of this health and position.

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• The organization has an interest in communicating its position to partners, suppliers, the wider
public (including potential future employees), all of whom have an interest in understanding the
future value of an organization.

The Limitations of Traditional Financial Reporting

The answer to whether or not traditional financial reporting can deliver on these information needs
is simply: No! There is now widespread agreement the current financial reporting system is incapa-
ble of explaining the value of intangibles. Restrictive accounting rules mean most intangibles cannot
be included on the balance sheet, especially if it is internally developed. Instead, all cost incurred to
develop intangible assets must usually be directly charged as expenses in the income statement. The
restrictive accounting rules have caused huge confusion in understanding the available information
on intangibles in traditional financial reporting, making them unsuitable as useful information sources
about intangible assets.

Voluntary Reporting of Intangibles

Various initiatives to address the limitations of traditional financial reporting have created frameworks
and guidelines for separate reports to disclose information on intellectual capital. These initiatives have
mainly been in Europe, where various governments and the European Commission have sponsored
such projects.

The various guidelines are all very similar. They all (a) provide a breakdown and classification of intan-
gibles (which are in line with the classification outlined in this guideline), (b) provide some guidance on
identifying and measuring intangibles, and (c) outline a template or blueprint for reporting intangibles
in intangible statements.

Building on the different guidelines and blueprints for intangible reports produced to date, we
encourage organizations to produce and publish intangible reports. These reports can be used to
communicate the importance of intangibles, both internally to staff as well as externally to organiza-
tion partners, suppliers, investors, and the wider public. However, they are only successful if they are
set in the context of the organizational strategy, and if they go beyond the mere reporting of measures
to include narrative and interpretive commentary.

Good reports about an organization’s intangibles contain the following elements:

• A brief introduction outlining the strategic context and the key strategic challenges
the organization will be facing.
• A brief narrative description of the strategy and visual representation of the organizational strat-
egy map. It is important to highlight the interdependencies and causal relationships between the
different elements of the strategy and, in particular, how the intangible value drivers help to
deliver the strategy.
• Descriptions of each of the intangible value drivers. More detailed descriptions should be provided
for each of the intangible value drivers, outlining the objectives, strategic targets, and associated
activities for each.

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Success and value creation of any organization in today’s economy will depend on their intangibles.
To drive future success, it is therefore critical to manage the intangible assets that underpin your strat-
egy. This guideline introduced five key steps for successfully managing intangibles, namely: (1) how to
identify the intangibles in your organization, (2) how to map their impact, (3) how to measure them,
(4) how to manage them, and (5) how to report them.

Practical and easy-to-apply tools and techniques have been introduced, including (a) a classification
and identification approach, (b) strategy maps to show how intangibles underpin the strategy, (c) KPQs
to guide the design of indicators, (d) techniques of measuring intangibles together with an indicator
design template, (e) an intangible risk management approach, as well as (f) guidelines on how to report
on intangibles. Together, these tools and techniques should provide a solid platform enabling practic-
ing managers and accountants to better manage their intangibles — a skill that will become ever more
critical to organizations in the global knowledge economy.

Intangibles are an effective and powerful financial performance initiative for the CPA in business to
implement so that it can help keep an organization at its peak of competition. It represents a cohesive
set of assumptions that describes a view of the future that is then used to develop a forecast or to
test a strategy, plan or strategy. Such future foresight ultimately represents an operating philosophy
that governs the mindset, decisions and actions of an entire organization. All organizations have an
opportunity to leverage such a philosophy in their organizations to mitigate some of the uncertainty,
volatility and unpredictability they face and in turn, derive unprecedented and ongoing value. The
tools, techniques and steps provided in this guideline enable organizations to effectively and efficiently
conduct their own intangibles initiative and to successfully implement where others have failed.

Intangibles have applications in all sectors (i.e., private, public, not-for-profit, and government) and at
all levels of the organization and across all departments.

Professional accountants in business by their very nature can leverage their know-how and expertise
in guiding organizations towards implementing such a unique customer-centric and competitive strat-
egy. The ability of strategy mapping to drive alignment and focus across an organization demonstrates
how powerful a tool (or program) it can be (if implemented correctly).

This facilitates the ability for an organization to maintain and sustain itself as a resilient, adaptive, inno-
vative and sustainable enterprise (per the RAISE philosophy) in competitive marketplaces. Ultimately
these drivers will aid both the CPA in business and organizations in ensuring successful adoption while
equipping themselves to engage in the Canadian ideal of good business.

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Additional Sources of Information

Intelligent Business Solutions (formerly Advanced Performance Institute) www.bernardmarr.com

Dillman, Don A., Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
2000.

Methods for Measuring Intangible Assets www.sveiby.com/articles/IntangibleMethods.htm

Marr, Bernard. The Intelligent Company: Five Steps to Success with Evidence-Based Management.
West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2010.

Marr, Bernard. Key Performance Indicators: The 75+ Measures Every Manager Needs to Know. Harlow,
CM: Pearson Education Limited, 2012.

Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage Publications: Newbury Park, CA, 2003.

About the Author

Bernard Marr is the founder and CEO of the Bernard Marr & Co (formerly the Advanced Performance
Institute). He is a leading global authority and best-selling author on organizational performance and
business success and regularly advises leading companies, organizations and governments across the
globe. Marr is an award-winning keynote speaker, researcher, consultant and teacher. His latest books
include: The Intelligent Company: Five Steps to Success with Evidence-Based Management and Key
Performance Indicators: The 75+ Measures Every Manager Needs to Know. For more information visit
www.bernardmarr.com or contact Bernard at [email protected].

© 2018 Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada

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DISCLAIMER
The material contained in this management accounting guideline series is designed to provide illustrative information of
the subject matter covered. It does not establish standards or preferred practices. This material has not been considered or
acted upon by any senior or technical committees or the board of directors of CPA Canada and does not represent an official
opinion or position of CPA Canada.

Management Accounting Guideline Guideline Future Value Drivers