The gap between the market value of firms and the capitalisation of their assets in the balance sheet highlights the value that investors are prepared to attribute to the "intangible resources" of many organisations (such as financial service, consulting, software development and e-commerce companies). The value generating potential of such organisations is attributed to resources, and competencies in managing those resources, that the traditional accounting system is both unable and unwilling to represent in explicit financial terms. This course aims to identify these "intangible resources" and to examine their role in achieving superior financial performance.

Topics include: customer relationships; supplier relationships; knowledge management; best practice people management, diversity; and community and government relationships. In addition, this course will also explore advances in financial reporting that attempt to capture and represent these "intangible resources," for example, the Balanced Scorecard, Intangible Asset Monitor, triple line reporting, the Scandia Navigator system and other recent attempts at measuring and evaluating intangibles. Contemporary performance measurements such as the Net Promoter Score are examined also.
This course is based on the premise that long term sustainable value creation is achieved only from collaborative organisational practices and transparency among all stakeholders.