What’s Your Company’s Donut Hole? Andrew Sherman Speaks at Tedx

How do you become a better harvester of intangible capital at your firm? Last month Andrew Sherman, Partner at Jones Day, was a keynote speaker at TedX.

His mission: To draw attention to the corporate waste taking place in the context of innovation.

In his presentation, Sherman highlights that board members and CEOs are now under more pressure than ever to drive business growth and shareholder value. Unfortunately, many fail to see the value of what they’re already sitting on, and roughly $10-30 trillion worth of intangible assets are going to waste.

However, by mimicking the principals of recycling and agrarianism, Sherman insists we can reverse this trend.

We don’t have to be the person who plants the seed at our firm – who creates the asset in question. But we can be the one who uncovers its value and brings it to the marketplace. Using Tom Monaghan from Domino’s Pizza as an example, Sherman points out that he didn’t invent the pizza. He simply introduced a better process for ordering pizza, and built a global empire along the way.

Sherman challenges us to ask, “What’s my company’s donut hole?” What are the intangible assets currently being misdeployed, underutilized or completely ignored in your company? You could be missing out on some huge opportunities.

Successful brands like Google ($300+ billion market cap) and Facebook ($135 billion market cap) are experts in harvesting intangible assets. Their value derives from the processes, know-how, relationships, channels, brand loyalty, and customer experience they have built. These are the assets of the new economy, and they shouldn’t be ignored.

Sherman challenges us to become intangible asset agrarians, and bring the same amount of discipline to them as a farmer would to his crops. Watch Andrew’s full TedX presentation and get inspired:

Learn more about Harvesting Intangible Assets by downloading Andrew’s recorded webinar with Firmex.

Debbie Stephenson

Debbie Stephenson is a former Content Marketing Manager at Firmex.