The Crucial Role of Intangible Capitals in Business Success
Published by
Laura Kellers Queen, Ed.D.
on
intangible capitals, often overlooked in traditional financial analyses, are key drivers of long-term business success. These non-physical assets—such as intellectual property, brand reputation, company culture, and employee expertise—hold immense value and are integral to a company’s competitive advantage. While tangible assets like machinery, buildings, and equipment are important, intangibles can be the distinguishing factor in a highly competitive market. For example, companies that invest in building a strong brand can enjoy customer loyalty and increased market share, even if they lack extensive physical assets. Similarly, a robust company culture that emphasizes employee well-being, innovation, and collaboration can lead to higher productivity and lower turnover, creating sustainable value that directly impacts profitability.
29Bison Founder and CEO, Laura Queen EdD., contributes her expertise in the latest whitepaper from the Exit Planning Institute.
On Strengthening Human Capital: “Start small, get curious, and focus on materiality. A great way to start is to look at one data set to begin with – often employee turnover is a good way to begin. What does history look like? Are there patterns in the data? If I break the data down by location, division, department, or manager/supervisor does it paint a different picture?”
On the Impact of Weak Customer Capital: "If you don’t regularly connect with your customers about their needs, desires, and experience with your organization, you’re missing huge opportunities. You will get great insights from these interactions. Use these insights to continuously improve your business. This may mean changing your measures of success or offering or sunsetting products or
services. It is critical to determine what skills, behaviors, values, etc. are critical for your team to meet client and customer expectations.”
On Social Capital: “Culture drives job satisfaction, employee engagement, customer service, innovation and creativity, employee attraction and retention. It is your magic or secret sauce.”