Edison in the Boardroom: How Leading Companies Realize Value from Their Intellectual Assets

5

LEVEL FIVE—VISIONARY

THE TOP LEVEL of the Value Hierarchy is the Visionary Level. (See Exhibit 5.1.) Companies at Level Five, like those at Level Four, have proven they can fully integrate their IP strategies with their business strategies, creating a broad range of intellectual assets. But beyond that, at Level Five, companies look outside themselves and into the future. Companies at this level use their IA to stake a claim to the future, defining and protecting both their current products and markets as well as those to come.

WHAT LEVEL FIVE COMPANIES ARE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH

Companies at Level Five continue to view their IP as strategic assets, but see them from a different perspective than do companies at the lower levels. At this level, companies become interested in using IP as a tool for creating the future of the firm as well as defining the technology future of their particular industry. Their IP management objectives include:

• Staking a claim on the future
• Encouraging disruptive technologies
• Embedding intellectual assets and IA management into the company culture

EXHIBIT 5.1 The Value Hierarchy

With these objectives in mind, it becomes clear that at Level Five companies have become more interested in thinking about their IA as a way of creating and managing their evolution into the future. This includes new and more far-thinking criteria for selecting what is to be ...