"If senior executives managed their organizations' fixed assets and financial capital the way that they manage their companies' knowledge assets and intellectual capital, they would be fired – if not put into jail."  Larry Chait

On average, the value of the intangible assets of an organization (its knowledge and intellectual capital) is up to three times the value of its tangible assets.  Yet in most organizations, overseeing those assets consumes little or no management attention.

Multiple factors say that access to and effective use of knowledge will become increasingly important:
þ Rapid, never-ending pace of change that is seemingly increasing
þ Ongoing shift to knowledge and innovation as bases of competition
þ Burgeoning of available information and access to such information

Next-generation managers who have a deep understanding of how knowledge is created and leveraged in organizations—and practical skills in how to achieve such leverage—will have a clear advantage over their peers. Managers without these skills—and their companies—will find it difficult to thrive, and potentially, survive.

Your company's intellectual capital may include patents, trade secrets, software code, manufacturing procedures, or customer relationship data—but equally important, the collective wisdom and expertise of your people.

Unfortunately, most companies have no systematic way to organize, access, share, communicate, and apply these valuable resources. Rather than leverage knowledge and intellectual capital, they suffer from a "brain drain."

To solve this problem, we can train your people in how to capitalize on your organization's growing and changing body knowledge:

þ Identify and prioritize your most critical knowledge resources

þ Structure those resources into an easily accessible "knowledge taxonomy"

þ Select and implement the appropriate  technologies, from repositories and access portals—to collaboration tools, expertise locator software, social networks, and communities of practice

þ Create the processes and shape the behaviors necessary to maximize the use of intellectual capital at every level of the enterprise