FRAMINGHAM (02/28/2000) - Brand
Consumers often have an affinity for a brand irrespective of a company's performance. Take Apple Computer Inc., General Motors Corp.'s Saturn unit or The Coca-Cola Co., for example. The level of recognition those brands enjoy helps make sales and has value on Wall Street.
Corporate culture
Microsoft has established a corporate culture that produces the results it's looking for, and it goes out of its way to hire people who will fit into that culture, not necessarily revolutionize it. Corporate culture also reflects knowledge gathered within a company.
Customer loyalty
Simply put, if a company's customers return often and spend a lot, then the company is doing something right. America Online Inc. doesn't typically give its customers cutting-edge software, back-office architecture or points of presence, but those customers are loyal. Accordingly, AOL does very well in the marketplace.
Environmental sustainability
An example of poor environmental sustainability is Hooker Chemical & Plastics Corp., which dumped toxic chemical waste near the Nigara River from 1942 to 1953 with little knowledge of the long-term hazards such dumping posed to the environment or to human beings. The company's value obviously suffered from the resulting public wrath and various lawsuits. This bad public image is a negative intangible asset.
Innovation
Pharmaceutical companies often derive enormous revenue from already-discovered materials given new application. Examples: Post-it notes and superglue.
Knowledge management systems
Systems or processes a company installs that help unearth best practices, promote knowledge sharing or provide a repository for such knowledge and make it useful to the rest of the workforce.
Product management aptitude
Systems inside a company that help deliver products more quickly, such as excellent supply-chainlogistics, order-entry systems,fulfillment systems and customer service.
Technological sustainability
Patent on a new widget with myriad as-yet-unrealized uses.