Invisible Advantage: How Intangibles are Driving Business Performance [Hardcover]

Jonathan Low (Author), Pamela Kalafut (Author), Pam Cohen Kalafut (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2002

IBM spends 3.5 billion dollars to acquire Lotus Development Corporation--and, more important, its chief programmer. French luxury-brands manufacturer LVMH invests in building its own retail shops to reinforce and control their image. Meanwhile, the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales issues a report that challenges the effectiveness of traditional corporate financial statements. In Invisible Advantage, Jonathan Low and Pam Kalafut explore the profound degree to which "intangible assets" are defining corporate value and driving decision making in all areas. The authors estimate that fully one-third of an organization's value is derived from elements that can't be seen, such as quality of leadership, strategy execution, reputation, and innovative culture. Invisible Advantage is a decoder ring to the intangibles economy--identifying the twelve "measures that matter" for any business today and outlining the new rules by which managers must play in order to attract the most talented employees, profitable customers, collaborative partners, and aggressive investors.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

Review

"[Invisible Advantage is] crisp and lively, a perfect compliment to the thought-provoking and insightful exploration they offer." -- Miami Herald, 7/8/02

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 16 and up
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (May 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738205397
• ISBN-13: 978-0738205397
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Stating the obvious on not a very novel topic, March 2, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Invisible Advantage: How Intangibles are Driving Business Performance (Hardcover)

The book is basically about how capital markets value intangibles and also how intangibles influence the company performance in general. The authors have conducted an apparently detailed research and worked out a Value Creation Index on which, they show, intangibles have a significant impact. From this proof, they move on to list 12 intangibles which are important (at present time) for company performance. They then conclude that a major challenge for today's companies is to work out a method to MANAGE those intangibles which are CRITICAL to the industry that the company is working in.

The idea is good. However, it is NOT NEW at all. Banking training companies, like Euromoney Training have been showing in their 'Bank Credit Analysis' classes for the last 14 years the importance of Non-Financial Analysis in evaluating creditworthiness of a company. They have been pointing out ever since that non-financial analysis is far more important than financial analysis (but should be carried out jointly) in understanding potential company performance. Also, there are various books published in late 1980s and early 1990s which elaborated on that point. So you see, the idea of valuing 'non-financial' intangible factors has been around for quite a while. We can only say, regarding this book, that it provides further evidence to a well-known argument. That's all.

When it comes to other points and 12 areas, i.e. the importance of branding and brands, human capital, property rights (intellectual capital), strategy execution, innovation, networking and alliances etc., there is also ample literature on the importance and detailing of these issues. We have known these factors for at least 15-20 years in their coming. So, if the book is pointing to the increasing incidence of these occurences, we can only agree with the authors. However, the discovery of these developments date back to much earlier times and the points are already "obvious" for the students of "doing business in modern times".

So, I would reccommend the book if you are a novice to the field. However, if you have a more than slight familiarity with the changing conditions of doing business in the last 10 years, the book is certainly NOT for you. It is just an ecclectic effort on a very familiar subject.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor job on Important Topic, January 3, 2005

By 

Nemesis (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Invisible Advantage: How Intangibles are Driving Business Performance (Hardcover)

This book is full of appeal to authority fallacies, cliches, anecdotes and references to articles in newspapers which is sad state of affairs considering that one of the authors is a Ph.D. The "used" price for this book is in the basement for a reason. This may entertain a first year student at a low level college somewhere or a high level high school student but it's really unfortunate that this subject was treated in such a sloppy manner.

5.0 out of 5 stars Would Recommend, April 28, 2011

By 

Bookie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Invisible Advantage: How Intangibles are Driving Business Performance (Hardcover)

It seeks out to prove that a business has more assests then it may recognize. It brings dimension and value to understanding that those silent assests have value and what that value is. How to position these assests.

A different take on assest values and how they can be leveraged.