Innovation and Digital Transformation Briefs

US Real Gross Domestic Product grew by 6.4 percent (annualized) during the first quarter of 2021, slightly below the consensus forecast and above The Conference Board’s forecast of 5.0 percent.

Our current health and economic crises only accelerate the vital need for more innovation and faster digital transformation. Senior innovation leaders on the Advisory Board of The Conference Board Innovation & Digital Transformation Institute explore this means in terms of challenges and opportunities across multiple levels.

Trust is an important, but often neglected, intangible asset of the corporation. Trust is a value enhancer for corporate value, and conversely, a lack of trust can destroy market value in an instant.

I offer a Theory of Intangible Capital, a conceptual framework that includes brand as well as other internally grown unaccounted assets that don’t appear on the balance sheet but are reliable drivers of corporate value. Intangible capital is about understanding how intangible assets that you manage fit into the big picture of the total market value of the company.

We need a new conceptual model that incorporates the idea that intangible assets directly connect to business strategy. That way, they can financially impact both revenue growth and shareholder value. After all, a company develops its brand to improve its bottom line because consumers prefer to purchase from companies they know and favor. The same holds true for investors who buy the stock of companies they know and trust.

Developing compelling strategic communications is essential to successfully creating and implementing strategy across the enterprise—but it also touches the preparation of annual leadership team and shareholder meetings, large M&A deals, investor roadshows, divestitures, reorganizations, and a host of other high value, high stakes strategic events. It is present at every moment when you need to move an organization forward.

There are certain basic concepts, such as intangible assets, that as a manager you should know well. Why? Because intangibles are meaningful and material to your business at many different levels, and yet you cannot rely on accounting to help manage them because intangibles are not on your company’s balance sheet unless they have been acquired.

It is time to rethink brand write downs and for all managers to see their real value. Building intangible capital models for evaluating the accretive value and potential of brands is a logical way to understand whether the investment requested for marketing is worthwhile.