"Intellectual capital has been around for as long as companies have had customers. It's what makes a company worth more than the sum of its countable parts. As an asset, it has been (inadequately) covered for years by the blanket of goodwill. Unlike accounting goodwill, intellectual capital appreciates.

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Traditional accounting measures can no longer adequately determine the real value of companies. But if intangible assets cannot be measured, how can they be managed? Corporations and accounting firms alike are taking this problem seriously and have been working to develop systems to identify, value and manage intellectual capital."