OVERVIEW

Business leaders today face a conundrum: making bold moves to increase their company's value when so much of this value is intangible. Human capital is the new arena for increasing shareholder value. Learning, knowledge management, and the inherent capability of an organization to renew itself and grow are the new sources of competitive advantage. Although these sources offer great promise, they are also elusive. In 1900, all but 5% of a company's value was locked up in hard, tangible assets. Today, this percentage is less than half (45%). The remaining value of a company consists of intangible assets such as learning, knowledge, leadership, and the full talents of all employees in short, human capital.

Human capital represents a potent source of competitive advantage.

How can business leaders leverage human capital and create competitive advantage when they have such a difficult time measuring the impact and outcomes of human capital initiatives? In other words, how can leaders manage what they cannot measure? Leaders so far have had limited success in trying to do so. Some people may be tempted to suggest that leaders should just resign themselves to an intangible world and accept defeat when it comes to managing human capital. This suggestion cuts leaders off from powerful sources of competitive advantage. It's too early to throw in the towel.

Bottom-line OD tackles this issue head-on and demonstrates how leaders and change practitioners can tame the intangibles. Section Three of this book contains case studies that demonstrate how seemingly intangible initiatives...