The strategic process of creating, identifying, protecting, developing, and managing the firm's intellectual assets to optimise the creation of value.

All organisations and sectors rely upon intellectual assets and they are increasingly recognised as key corporate assets. Intellectual assets are what investors really should care about, but they are rarely identified, understood and managed as the key to business success that they are.

Intellectual assets are the total information and knowledge (whether or not documented, registered or 'owned'), skill and experience, systems and processes, relationships and other intangibles. Intellectual assets, intangible assets and intellectual capital are very similar concepts. Intellectual property is a subset of intellectual assets. A firm's total capital is comprised of physical, financial and intellectual assets and combined constitute the organisation's core competency and competitive advantage. Intellectual assets are the knowledge, processes etc that are used to transform financial and physical assets into business outputs and ultimately into profit.

The intellectual assets strategy is a plan aligned with the broader business strategy to manage the productivity of the intellectual assets at the firm's or sector's disposal and to optimise the profit and value creation from those assets.

The process begins with the intellectual assets assessment eNZyme intellect’s carefully structured eight step process identifies and records the assets in the portfolio. The portfolio categorises the assets, records whether the range of assets are registered, owned or codified, how critical they are to the firm’s success and the firm’s/sector’s resilience if the assets are lost, damaged or disrupted. Then each asset is reviewed to determine whether it represents a direct opportunity for commercialisation.

For most firms, just documenting the portfolio adds greater material value to the firm or sector than the cost of the assessment. With the right thinking we can build new innovation, business and market engagement models for New Zealand and New Zealand businesses. This won’t happen spontaneously but it can, with the right thinking and leadership, be made to happen with neither disruption to the existing economy nor with outrageous public sector expenditure.

Tony Smale is a innovation and management consultant for Enzyme Intellect