The Intellectual Capital Landscape
1. Education and experience. Together with talent, these are the key components of human capital. They are typically summarized in an individual’s resume, a document designed in part to establish an individual’s value in the employment marketplace. But the value of individuals is not absolute: It is situational. That is why one is well advised to customize one’s resume for the particular requirements of each prospective position.
2. Traditional intellectual property. Patents, copyrights, and trademarks comprise this domain and are protected by law. In many cases, their value can be appraised, for example, the copyright on an enduring piece of music or a famous movie generates a royalty stream of reasonably predictable value. The same is true of a patent on a commercial drug. Such well defined, income-producing properties are, in fact, equivalent to tangible capital; whether they show up on the books is a matter of accounting convention and/or a business decision. In what may be a new trend, large firms, including Dow Chemical,2 are employing internal or external consultants to appraise and to manage their patent portfolios.