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Managing With a Conscience

Leading Blog

Frank Sonnenberg makes the case in Managing with a Conscience , that the only sustainable way to succeed is the right way—not cutting corners—emphasizing the intangibles like trust, creativity, focus, speed, flexibility, relationships, loyalty, and employee commitment. We can change that, if we begin with our own example first.

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How to Keep Your Team Agile and Aligned Under Pressure

Strategy Driven

You can see this play out in your daily operations and ultimately in the P&L. However, there is an intangible asset that is very difficult to quantify — but without it you cannot ultimately succeed. This asset is, of course, alignment. efficiency).

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Startups Could Fundamentally Change the Way Big Investors Operate

Harvard Business Review

This reliance has evolved because despite the enormous volumes of capital they control, most of these giants are strictly “firewalled” and cannot use the capital to fund actual operations, even if doing so would generate higher expected investment returns or lower risk.

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Do You Know What Your Company’s Data Is Worth?

Harvard Business Review

For example, at the end of its 2015 fiscal year, Apple’s balance sheet stated tangible assets of $290 billion as a contribution to its annual revenues, with approximately $141 billion worth of intangible assets — a combination of intellectual capital, brand equity, and (investor and consumer) goodwill.

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How NASA Uses Telemedicine to Care for Astronauts in Space

Harvard Business Review

They determine what material and intangible means of disease and trauma prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are needed for each mission. Medicines, instruments, consumables, and exercise devices belong to material assets; intangible assets involve medical expertise on board and on the ground, processes, procedures, and protocols.

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Why Financial Statements Don’t Work for Digital Companies

Harvard Business Review

Curiously, companies are allowed to report purchased brands and intangibles as assets on balance sheet, creating distortions between earnings and assets of digital companies that rely on organic growth versus acquisitions. Its value growth is powered by the network in place, not by increments of operating costs.

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What’s Driving Superstar Companies, Industries, and Cities

Harvard Business Review

Some superstar firms benefit from being in “superstar” sectors of activity, particularly those in which value-added gains go to gross operating surplus (an economic measure that represents the income earned by capital). Acquisitions, bold investment in intangible assets, and attracting talent can ultimately make the difference.