Comprehensive Intellectual Capital Management: Step-By-Step

Chapter 10. First Get Your Act Together

The business model, vision, and culture of an organization determine the effectiveness of any new change or initiative that the organization tries to introduce. The business model determines the flexibility of the structure, the command and reporting lines, and affects the way the various departments and units communicate and work with each other. A business model that is too rigid or formal, with prominent boundaries between levels and departments, would defeat any intellectual capital management (ICM) program. Similarly, vision sets the organizational character and the general state of mind of leadership and management. This infiltrates throughout the whole organization and shapes the attitudes of everyone in the organization toward work, co-workers, superiors, subordinates, partners, and customers. A vision that lacks inspirational power and futurism will take the zeal out of the ICM initiative, which is required to champion what is to many organizations a major change. Closely linked to the vision is the culture of the organization, which affects the way business is done and the values that everyone in the organization adopts and functions by. If these values are contrary to those required for ICM then the ICM initiative may die in its cradle. It is therefore essential before embarking on implementing any ICM stage or program to ensure that the organization has the appropriate business model, vision, and culture in place—in short, to ensure ...