What is Intellectual Capital?
Intellectual Capital is simply the sum total of all the Intangible Assets (intangibles) in an organization.
It is commly sub-classified into Human Capital, Structural Capital and Relational Capital.
Human Capital
We have often heard and read the phrase "People are our most important assets". People Assets refer to the Human Capital
of the organization. It is the sum total of knowledge, skills, competencies, ideas, energies, motivation, etc that is resident
in the minds of the employees of the Company. This capital leads to the creation and/or revamp of new products and services that attracts Customers,
drives revenues and stimulates long term growth of the Company.
Structural Capital
Structural Capital is the knowledge of an organization that does not go home at night. In other words, it is
company property that is deeply entrenched in the culture of the company by way of documents, systems, processes, databases,
publications, manuals, etc. It is distinct from Human Capital in that it can be easily reproduced and shared. However, ownership
of it can be legally protected by way of patents and trade secret and copyright laws.
Relational Capital
Relational capital is the value of an organizations's relationships with the people and businesses with whom it trades.
This is the most valuable form of Intellectual Capital because Customers pay the bills, which
directly contribute to revenues. However, relational capital is highly intangible in nature, which is perhaps the reason why Companies
spend enormous amounts of marketing money to encapsulate this form of Intellectual Capital into a "Brand".
Whichever way we cut it, experts agree that Intellectual Capital is clearly the new growth driver of the Knowledge Economy. Just
as machines replaced human and animal labour during the Industrial revolution, in the Knowledge Economy intelligence and brainpower
is replacing energy, machines and muscle. In one way or another, we are all knowledge workers now, working for knowledge companies.
Obviously then, businesses that will survive and grow during the Knowledge revolution are the ones that will best manage their
Knowledge i.e. their Intellectual Capital.
It makes eminent sense therefore to understand exactly what Is Intellectual Capital, and how it can be measured and managed
to drive sustainable Growth. Attainix Consulting was formed explicitly to help you in this process.
