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Mary Adams

Is the future an asset or a liability? Are we in balance?

Leif Edvinsson just asked this question in a comment about the Balanced Scorecard. He says:

Balanced scorecard is based on a paradigm of balance. To some extent this also goes for accounting, and the balance sheet. However for Innovation the core is in the balance....There you will find the
knowing for the Future. this takes us also to the Question if the
Future is an Asset or a Liability?

Balance or not? Asset or liability? What's the lesson for the IC community?

Tags: BSC, Edvinsson, IC, Leif, balanced, capital, intellectual, scorecard

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Gerhard Kristandl said:
The future is an asset or a liability depending if the "claim to future benefits that does not have a physical or financial embodiment" goes the right or the wrong way - is "growth" then defined as "realised less unrealised claims to future benefits larger than zero"? Is this the "balance" we are looking for here?
The future is indeterminate but much inflenced by what we do. My approach is to outline different scenarios based on current trends and what we can actually do (within the limits of the current constraints). Then one must apply ranges of probabilities to the scenarios. In general I am optimistic on Asia and Europe and pessimistic on the America and Africa.
The future IS an asset if - and only if - we figure out how to effectively innovate forward...preserving the best of our past and realigning the rest to take advantage of the Knowledge Economy. Years ago, we published a graphic in one of the infamous Skandia IC Reports - this one of the 'Power of Innovation': http://www.entovation.com/innovation/skandia.htm.

There are now many defining the 'Future of Innovation' - making the link to sustainability (defined as profitability or prosperity)...dependent more upon the intellectual/intangible measures of wealth. 40+ members of the ENTOVATION 100 wrote contributions to the new book on the topic: http://www.entovation.com/mailing/E100%20Alert-Future%20of%20Innova.... Peruse their messages – and those in the digital publication – and see how worldwide, experts are illuminating the ‘How’!
Dear Mary, Leif, Gerhard, James, Debra,

The future is in the mind and hopefully in the heart of the beholder ;)
As Debra states the importance to "figure out how to effectively innovate forward...preserving the best of our past and realigning the rest to take advantage of the Knowledge Economy"
One might add, that both aspects - established assets and innovation - need to include social capacities and social innovation. Intangibles thereby refer to intellectual, social and emotional intelligence, sustainability includes the ability to balance individual and common interests.
The perspective is essential for the way forward, i.e. IC/I see and how to navigate the future well being of future Generations, to avoid the chaos and liabilities of situations like in Greece.

 

Perhaps the same question could be applied to the past as a foundation for our future - assett or liability?  I see it as being both - our evolution has been and will continue to be a constant rebalancing act - without the chaos, liabilities and challenges, what is there to attract/draw our energy/assetts (balance), learn and innovate from?   it appears that when we are slow to respond, learn and innovate from the 'lessons' of our past/present the rate of recovery to equilibrium or 'credit' will be slow, and/or the slide into 'debit' may increase.  The current situation in Greece may be an example in case, yet we have plenty of less dramatic though important examples in the changing world economic order order with developed economies in rapid decline and others in ascent.  Do you see the mobilisation of IC in these economies as a key determinant of change?

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