Managing intellectual capital to grow shareholder value

Abstract

Increasingly, knowledge is being shared, but is it being exploited to generate additional income streams and grow shareholder value? This article examines how 51 companies that generate around £9.3 billion in revenues from their know-how are managing 20 different categories of intellectual capital. Their experience suggests that boards need to increase the proportion of people who are creating, packaging and exploiting know-how and ensure various forms of knowledge from designs, websites, patents and copyrights to processes, skills and customer and supplier relationships are being fairly valued, fully exploited and converted into profit and ultimate shareholder wealth.