Intellectual Capital By Any Other Name is Just As Valuable

Have you ever had an idea, it seemed brilliant (at the time), you pounded it out in a burst of manic energy, and then…it got lost in the pile of ideas?

If yes, then we have something in common. Kolbe calls us “quick starts”. I know, weird for a lawyer, but before you start wondering, I am just slightly more quick start than fact finder. (For the Kolbe nerds out there, I’m a 5-5-6-4.)

Anyhoo, having completely failed in my first nut graf attempt (with apologies to the amazing Erica Holthausen), I’ll get to the point.

Over a year ago I had the (cough…) brilliant idea to create a super detailed, several worksheets long, audit system to identify the many non-tangible assets that can be found in professional services firms, including a process for grading them by value in terms of the competitive advantage they provide and their potential business impact.

At the time I was trying to build my audience of founders of service-based businesses by writing about “Intellectual Capital” and, to quote Lizzo, all I got was the sound of you not calling me back. I used it once before it got buried.

Then last week I had a conversation with an exit planner who asked me if I could provide a few questions that he could add to his client intake questionnaires that would highlight valuable assets that they might otherwise miss. My answer was “hell, yes!”, so I looked at a selection of intake questionnaires to find out what was missing.

The biggest gap I noticed was the cursory way the questionnaires ask about intellectual property. Without more guidance, so many potential assets would be missed. As I wrote, something triggered a memory about the long-forgotten Think Beyond IP Intellectual Capital Audit workbook.

I searched my old Google docs and found it. Humbly, I still think it is brilliant.

My theory for why it didn’t catch on 18 months ago is that I was talking to the wrong audience. This workbook is best used with other advisors to founders in connection with building an exit or financial plan, not by founders themselves.

I’d love to test my theory. If you are an exit planner, business broker or wealth advisor to founders of expertise-based businesses, I would be grateful for no more than 30 minutes of your time to show you the workbook and ask for your feedback on whether it (or other intellectual asset-related resources) would be helpful to you and your clients. Or if you know any of the above, please send them my way!