Invisible Advantage: How Intangibles are Driving Business Performance

Invisible Advantage, by Jonathan Low and Pam Cohen Kalafut, is a thoughtful analysis of the value of intangible assets in today's corporate world with solid recommendations for turning them into a competitive edge. Low and Kalafut, who have undertaken several major research projects on this topic and presented their results at forums worldwide, say a dozen nonmaterial resources in particular have played a significant role in business success since the days of Ford and GM. The 12--which they identify as leadership, strategy execution, communication and transparency, brand equity, reputation, alliances and networks, technology and processes, human capital, workplace organization and culture, innovation, intellectual capital, and adaptability--"don't show on a balance sheet or an income statement," they write, "yet they are manageable and usually quantifiable drivers of corporate-value creation." After offering some historical perspective and a look at their methodology, the pair explain how each of these factors works in the real world today and show how highfliers like Dell and McDonald's have managed to capitalize on them "quickly and quietly, before competitors or anyone else caught on to what they were doing." Practical advice such as "five key steps" for managing intangibles elevates this from an interesting academic exercise to a more pragmatic how-to. --Howard Rothman