INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Intellectual Capital Management



Intellectual Capital Management

Introduction

In recent years, Intellectual Capital has emerged as being one of the essential components of growth and success. It includes both "human capital" and "intellectual assets". Human Capital is obviously the human component of an organization, including its owners, employees and, more generally, all people who contribute their talents, their expertise and their individual skills. Intellectual assets, meanwhile, include not only IP but codified rules and other physical manifestations of knowledge that may hold the same organization. Within an organization or company, intellectual capital is the knowledge that organization's intellectual, the soft information (which is not visible, and therefore is not spelled out anywhere) that has and can produce value.

This is a relatively recent (circa 1997 there are numerous definitions of authors like Edwinson and Malone, Steward or Brooking) and moved to different areas: the social, enterprise, and even academia. (Kamath, 2007, 52-64)

Among its various classifications, one of the most accepted is the differentiation of three blocks:

Human capital. These are the skills, attitudes, skills and knowledge that each member of the company contributes to it, i.e. assets are individual and nontransferable. This capital can be owned by the company

Organizational capital. This includes all those elements of internal organizational type that implements the company to perform its functions optimally as possible. Among these issues are the databases, tables of organization, process manuals, individual property (patents, trademarks or intangible element that can be protected by intellectual property rights) and all those things of value to the company is higher than the material. (Roman, 2005)

Relational capital. Refers potential customers to be targeted by the product of a company, it fixed customers (customer base, set lists, etc.), And Business to Customer (agreements, partnerships, etc.). And also to the processes of organization, production and marketing of the product (strategies towards the achievement). Without doubt, the right formula for managing intellectual capital, taking into account these intellectual assets is a key factor in the progress of the company. In this regard, and in response to this need or concern, there have been numerous studies and approaches have emerged that are different lines of research but with the same objective. To cite a few: humane, approach to development and innovation, process approach, economic or financial focus, among others. (Kamath, 2006, 1-9)

Intellectual capital can remain a concept for general use, particularly in the context of knowledge management, but it also tends to be formalized in non-financial management indicators, so to be clear, inventoried, and documented in standardized assessments and finally the annual disclosure of the company.

Investors are in effect in the data on the intangible interest that is lacking in austere financial statements. Assessment of intellectual capital in the accounting framework, however, raises many issues at different levels of analysis, even if the plans already allow accountants to take account of intangible assets (research costs, patents and trademarks). (Haas, 2005, 1-24)

Discussion

Knowledge is becoming available to the organization a competitive advantage it apart from other organizations, and is ...