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Dr. Ante Pulic, Karmen Jelcic | |
| Each company has unique knowledge, skills, values and solutions that can be transformed into value at the market. If managing the intangible resources (IC) can help to achieve competitive advantage, increase efficiency and market value then it is not a choice, but a necessity. Therefore the key question is: Do we create or destroy value? |
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Ante Pulic is economics professor at two faculties Zagreb/ Croatia and Graz/Austria, where he has been leading research projects on the measurement of IC- Performance. His major contribution to the IC- field is the development of the Value Creation Efficiency Analysis (VAIC™), a new output measure for the new economy. VAIC™ provides information on the performance of key resources, “physical and financial” and “intellectual” capital, based on regular financial data. It has been applied at more than 2000 companies and banks at various levels of business activity. As business success has traditionally been expressed through accounting and managers are used to react primarily to numerical objectives and feed backs, he has put all his efforts into finding a way to bridge the gap between new economic reality and traditional accounting standards. It is obvious that the traditional financial metrics do not reflect reality any more, therefore new output measures for knowledge work have to be introduced. As the key objective of any business is value creation, the ability of employees to transform their knowledge and skills into value creating actions is of vital importance. The more effective knowledge utilization, individual and collective, the more successful value creation will be. As the Co-founder of the Austrian IC- Research Center A. Pulic has initiated international collaboration on the project “New accounting systems for the new economy”. One of the major issues is the inadequate treatment of human capital (represented by all the employees of a company). On the one hand HC is considered to be the key value-creating factor, on the other hand salaries and fringe benefits are still considered to be costs rather than investments. It is also important to include additional IC-reporting in order to make visible “if and how” intangibles are managed and when ROI can be expected. That way investors and shareholders will receive valuable information. In Croatia he and Karmen Jelcic are currently involved in a major IC-project initiated by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. The objective being to create awareness for the importance of Intellectual Capital, as the key production factor of new economy, through the activities of a newly founded IC-Association within the Chamber. The activities include publishing and free distribution of an informative IC-booklet, lectures and workshops in all 20 Counties as well as measurement of the “Value Creation Efficiency” of all Counties (past 6 years) in order to receive a base for future improvement and also the creation of a “National Value Creation Efficiency Index”. Ante, Karmen and their colleagues have been closely affiliated with the sponsorship of the McMaster conference on Intellectual Capital (Hamilton, Ontario) and the most recent co-chaired the International Conference on Intellectual Capital (Portoroz, Slovenia). | |