Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth [Hardcover]

Ronald J. Baker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470053615 | ISBN-13: 978-0470053614 | Publication Date: November 9, 2007 | Edition: 1

Praise for Mind Over Matter Why Intellectual capital is tHe Chief Source of Wealth

"Ron Baker has written another great book on the thoughts and theories on intellectual capital.As usual, he has an awesome depth of content, knowledge, and thought. A great read."

--Reed Holden, founder, Holden Advisors Corp., www.holdenadvisors.com, and coauthor, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing and Pricing with Confidence: 10 Ways to Stop Leaving Money on the Table

"At a time when the virtues that made America great--individualism, hard work, and free trade--are openly debated by well-meaning politicians, Ron Baker gives us Mind Over Matter. It is a story detailing the triumph of human spirit, imagination, and creativity. Ron tells us what the 'knowledge economy' really means. He gives a prescription for transforming human and intellectual capital into the foundation for sustainable prosperity. Mind Over Matter is a provocative book deserving of a thoughtful read. It is a timeless message to be treasured for generations."

--Robert G. Cross, Chairman and CEO, Revenue Analytics, Inc., www.revenueanalytics.com

"Ron Baker is an absolute master at challenging the 'physical fallacy,' e.g., the basis on which we assign value to businesses by focusing on tangible rather than intangible assets. This book builds on his previous books and helps the reader understand how critical intellectual capital is to the key to success in the twenty-first century. Ron pulls from the greatest business thinkers and economists,?from Drucker to Karl Sveiby as well as current company success stories to fund his rich gold mine of proof. The biggest benefit of the book is to change the paradigm of those who are the passive keepers of the 'books.' This is a must-read for anybody who wants to flourish in the age of intellectual capital."

--Sheila Kessler, PhD, President, Competitive Edge, www.CompetitiveEdge.com

"This book helps us understand some of the origins and sources that have led Ron Baker to the many contributions he has made to our understanding of good practice in running professional businesses."

--David Maister, author and leading consultant to professional firmswww.davidmaister.com

"Reading Ron Baker's book was the only delightful incident that robbed my sleep on the flight to Frankfurt today. It was sheer pleasure--I must have entertained or annoyed fellow passengers with repeated nodding and several exclamations. Baker has a terrific style that captures my mind while he entertains and educates by showing lines of connection between authors, incidents, and theories that I have never seen before. He hardly uses the 'You have to do this and that' approach, which I despise in most business books. I sum it up in two words: outstanding stuff!"

--Friedrich Blase, Kerma Partners, www.kermapartners.com

"This is a wonderful read for anyone who wants to explore the power of constructive thinking. In Mind Over Matter, Ron examines the power of creative thought over the conventional wisdom that you must make a tangible product for wealth to be created. The opening chapter sets a wonderful stage for the book, which develops the power of the new business equation and the underlying theory of the various types of intellectual capital. This is a must-read book for every business leader."

--Peter Byers, Chartered Accountant, Byers & Co. Ltd, New Zealand

"Peter Drucker coined the term knowledge worker a half century ago. We are all still only beginning to fully comprehend the implications. In Mind Over Matter, Ron Baker has switched on a beacon for us to follow. If we have the courage to embrace the concepts Ron posits, perhaps it will be less than another half century before we begin to reap the rewards as individuals and as a society."

--Ed Kless, Senior Director, Partner Development and Recruitment, Sage Software

Editorial Reviews

Review

"…is a broad and fairly comprehensive multidisciplinary treatment of intellectual capital and the implications of the new knowledge economy." (Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, July/August 2008)

From the Inside Flap

America's economy has been transformed from a twentieth-century materials-based economy to the Age of the Conceptual-Based Economy—and the currency of this realm is ideas and knowledge. Today's corporations must prepare to seize the advantages of this new age, or watch as others that are more ready and willing to do so replace them.

Written by Ronald Baker, recognized forward-thinker in the professional knowledge firm sector, Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital Is the Chief Source of Wealth warns that companies can no longer ignore the growing power of its intellectual capital. Introducing firms to the three components of Intellectual Capital—human capital, structural capital, and social capital—and how to leverage them to create wealth in today's economy, this book reveals:

• The physical fallacy––why wealth no longer consists of tangible things, but of ideas and imagination from human minds

• The new shift taking place in the economy from manual and service workers to knowledge workers

• How to harness and capture the significant intellectual capital within today's companies

• How to develop and attract human capital to your company

• How to create a knowledge bank in order to leverage a firm's Intellectual Capital in the most effective manner

Part of Wiley's Intellectual Capitalism Series, Mind Over Matter introduces readers to those hidden assets not reflected in their company's financial reports, but fully responsible for creating wealth. A must-read for executives, managers, and leaders—and anyone concerned with getting and keeping a job in the twenty-first-century economy—Mind Over Matter will inspire and challenge readers to unlock the enormous financial and competitive power hidden in the intellectual capital of their corporations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470053615
• ISBN-13: 978-0470053614
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ronald J. Baker started his career in 1984 with KPMG's Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to educating professionals around the world, and to burying the billable hour and timesheets in professional knowledge firms.

As a frequent speaker, writer, and educator, his work takes him around the world. He has been an instructor with the California CPA Education Foundation since 1995 and has authored fifteen courses for them.

He is the author of six books, including: Professional's Guide to Value Pricing; The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services, co-authored with Paul Dunn; Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value; Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators; and Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth; and, Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms.

Ron has toured the world, spreading his value-pricing message to over 100,000 professionals. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant's Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession, named on Accounting Today's 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession, and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation.

He graduated in 1984, from San Francisco State University, with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University and Cato University, and is a member of the Professional Pricing Society. He presently resides in Petaluma, California.

To contact Ron Baker:

VeraSage Institute
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website/Blog: www.verasage.com
Twitter @ronaldbaker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Implementing-Value-Pricing/160643393979925

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars People as the real source of value, July 30, 2008

By 

Douglas W. Mcdavid "DougMcDavid" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth (Hardcover)

This is an important book on an important topic - the creation of value and wealth by people working together in services relationships. It's hard to tell from the title, but this is, among other things, a one-volume economics education. Baker builds on extensive quotes from a who's who of economic and business literature, including a satiric essay on balance of trade fallacies by Frederic Bastiat, and the full text of a prescient speech Ronald Reagan in Moscow in 1988. The book is written in an approachable first-person style, as befits an author who seems to be a bit of a cult hero in the world of accounting ... yes, accounting!

Don't let the focus on economics and accounting throw you off. This is a business book with an edgy and timely message. Baker provides a harsh critique of current accounting practices as lacking theory, in the sense of ability to explain, predict and prescribe. He describes current accounting practices as the "three blind mice" of the balance sheet, the income statement, and cash flow that can only record value after the fact, and do not properly address the value of intellectual capital. He is also a critic of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which he maintains has done more harm than good. He is not alone in this evaluation, (see The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle: What We've Learned; How to Fix It (Aei Liability Studies) ) but he goes beyond other critics by proposing positive alternatives to costly and restrictive regulations.

This book provides key intellectual underpinning for Baker's longstanding quest to do away with such industrial vestiges as billable hours, timesheets, cost-plus pricing. His VeraSage Institute is a think tank for improving the position and practices of professional service firms. Specifically, Baker and VeraSage focus on knowledge workers in the truest sense of the term as people who "own the means of production, and apply knowledge to knowledge to create value".

Baker maintains that people should not be regarded as an unfortunate cost, but rather seen as volunteers, who can walk away from any employer, simply to invest their personal intellectual capital elsewhere. He sees knowledge as a nonrival asset, meaning that its value to one person is not reduced when it is possessed by others. Perhaps at a later date he will return to an analysis of the comparative value of fresh knowledge that provides advantages vis a vis competitive rivals.

Baker insists that knowledge work must be better monetized, beyond the stultifying practice of simply measuring hours spent on the job. As precedent for alternative monetization, he cites the frequent flyer programs of airlines that constitute a massive alternative currency. "Money is not wealth per se, it is merely how members of a society move it around ... the wealth of nations resides in consumer well-being, not profits." This is focus on well-being is supported by long-wave economic theorist Carlota Perez (see Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages ), who believes that the frenzied focus on technology for its own sake is giving way to real wealth creation based on "attention to collective well-being."

Baker points out that entrained thinking can be a barrier to achieving these beneficial effects. He decries the use of military and sports analogies that assume business is a form of warfare. He quotes from Pfeffer and Sutton ( Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management ) to stress that a focus on competition over cooperation is a hallmark of the Michael Porter school of strategic thinking. A good antidote to this perspective is to be found in the value net notion of Cinzia Parolini ( The Value Net: A Tool for Competitive Strategy ) that looks at value-creating nodes and relationships that transcend traditional firm and industry boundaries.

This is a timely message for executives, within and beyond the professional services industry. Supporting and capturing the value of creative and problem-solving communities can unleash a new wave of wealth creation, and Ron Baker provides needed guidance for how to achieve this.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for young professionals, July 9, 2010

By 

W. Prapha "Art Prapha" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth (Hardcover)

I stumbled across a copy of 'Mind over Matter' while studying for my CPA examination in the library. I borrowed it and finished it in one evening. I am a young professional who has been thinking about what he wants to do with his career and hence his future. This book, luckily, does not tell me 'what' my future should be, but instead it made me think about the 'why' of my future direction in life.

A young professional, particularly those who are serious about their careers and self-development, should read this book for many reasons:

1) This book will challenge your current worldview about professional knowledge industry and the role your 'intellectual capital' can enhance your capability as a future leader
2) This book draws from the world's greatest thinkers and economists, combining with the author's proposition, to provide a rich discussion about what it takes to be a first-rate knowledge worker in the 21st century
3) The author's own life story will serve as an inspiration for many young professionals to 'fly higher' and be brave enough to live their dreams and not settling for anything less

I am so grateful to have found this little gem and I hope you will feel the same after reading it. The most amazing about being human is our mind, and this book tells you why our mind needs to be trained to achieve its potentials.