MODERN THINKING
Value exchange: the rapid growth
of the intellectual transaction
and skills as currency
By Janine Garner
T
here is a lot of chatter along
(appropriately) the ether
about exactly what kind
of future we are heading into in
business terms. What sort of shelf
life do organisations as a whole
have in the digi-age? When the
consumer is driving the market
the reality is this. Organisations
need to future-proof themselves;
to ensure that they remain relevant
and maintain a healthy bottom line
when said consumer can so easily
move to the next product/idea/
concept without blinking an eyelid.
The big numbers when it came to
value in a business have always
been – you guessed it – cold, hard,
assets and the relentless dollar. A
P & L’s success or otherwise was
measured in a colour – black or
red. But in the Age Of Information,
has this focus shifted? As
innovation, invention and the
ability to anticipate change rapidly
become increasingly important,
are there other currencies besides
cash that take precedence in
value?
For any business that is not strong
in material assets, the answer
would have to be yes, and has
been for some time. But what even
the strongest corporate bastions
are now realizing is that a healthy
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February 2016
bank balance doesn’t necessarily
guarantee future growth.
Competition is no longer linear. The
‘unknown unknowns’ are waiting
around every corner. Every industry,
every sector, is suffering from the
competitor they didn’t realize they
had. Think about cab companies.
A monopoly on the industry –
but then Uber. Zuckerberg was
smarter – he saw what Instagram
could do to Facebook, so he
bought it. 2015, and Instagram as a
drive to product tool outsells every
other major social media platform
combined.
Zuck’s billions aside, the way that
these innovative businesses have
broken through is not by having
a major chunk of change in the
deposit account. It has been
through a recognition that their
best chance at success is from an
often-overlooked asset.
Their people, their ability to think
and work collaboratively, and the
skills they possess as individuals –
and as a group.
Take a hypothetical situation.
You are a winemaker. You want to
expand to China, because that’s
where the market is heading. You
know that the type of wine most
popular there is a sweetish white,
but you don’t have vineyards in
areas that specialize in that type of
grape. You also know that a normal