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    with some success. Elements in the strategy inclu ded clear market s egmentationand targeting, simplified products, streamlined sales, confirmation and after-salesclaims service processes, use of direct response television, inbound telemarketing,deployment of the call centre approach to customer recruitment using tried and tested mainframe computer systems, strong branding , exploiting the available rangeof direct marketing campaig n techniques and media, excellent media buying andensuring continuous measurem ent. Great stress was put on good staff manage ment.The effect of Direct Lines entry was to revolutionize the market. More than 10 yearslater, elements of the down side appeared such as an increase in injury claim s costs.Involvement in a much wider range of financial services products is now a well-trodden path.

    It is realized that focusing on customer acquisitions cannot sustain the market inthe long term. The emph asis has shifted to retention. To help reduce costs,compan ies are considering outsourcing key operations. Some are looking to sharedata by taking ad vantage of information providers such as Equifax. This has itsdisadvan tages, and perhaps the benefits in terms of reducing marketing costs derivefrom sharing data and techniques relating to good and fickle customers. There aretwo issues-the removal of intermediaries and relationship marketing militatingagainst sharing customer responsibility. Neither is yet totally resolved. Nonetheless,the direct ins urance sector represents the state of the art in the mass marketing offinancial services. The next few years will show whether combining relationshipmarketing, technology, culture and managem ent skills can maintain the impetus.Those w ishing to join in should research all aspects in depth, develop a vision ofcustomer managem ent and test the process for manag ing the vision, Then and onlythen can come full implementation.

    Developing Intellectual Capital at SkandiaLeif Edvi nssonOne reason for Skand ias focus on intellectual capital was a need for a new logicaccounting for the development of knowledg e intensive services. The search startedmore than 10 years ago. Today a major proportion of investment goes into knowledgeupgrad ing and there needs to be some method of accounting for this. A new balanceis already emerging ; on the asset side is the financial capital, on the debt sideintellectual capital. Intellectual capital is supplementary information to financialinformation, non-financial capital and a debt item. Skand ias d efinition ofintellectual capital is the possession of knowled ge, applied experience,organizational technology, customer relationships and professional skills whichhas been simplified to hum an capital plu s structural capital equa ls intellectualcapital. Indeed an important role of leadership is to convert hum an into structuralcapital.

    In 1993 a report was presented to the board which provided a simple overviewof non-financial as well as financial data. It was evident that a new langu age wasalso needed ; this has been developed into a Skand ia value scheme which quantifiesas much as possible and is similar to the balanced score card approach. The firstannua l report was presented in 1994 in an internal document ; the first public reportentitled V isualising Intellectual Capital was published in 1995.The followingyear saw a supplem ent to the Interim Report on a similar theme.

    Six phases represent the pattern for intellectual capital developm ent-insights,the development of metrics, leadership, development oftechnology tools, packagin gorganizational technology and continuous renewal. Leadership needs no focusespecially on the value of the structural capital and on its renewal and development.But there is also a requirement to highlight the process of adding to the long-termsustainability of the organization and monitoring the roots for sustainable cash-flow generation.

    Executive Summaries

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    Summ arizing all this into one reporting format led to the emergence of the Skand iaNavigator as another languag e of dynamic reporting which ca n balance thefinancial and non-financial issues, past and current performance. It has similaritieswith the balanced score card allowing the development of numerical indicators.Navigator is used increasingly as a planning and follow-up tool ; in the future itmay be applied at corporate level. Given the information it contains, themanag ement will now have a more comprehensive appreciation of theorganizations value potential.

    Though hum an capital may not be the major organizational asset compared withstructural capital, it is the most dynam ic. The challenge is to manag e the process ofdeveloping intellectual capital so that the value creation capabilities can beenhanced. Intellectual capital managem ent can, in fact, provide a number ofbenefitssuch as a steeper learning curve, shortened lead times, cost savings a nd new valuescreation. It mus t be remembered that intellectual capital is a relationship issue, arenewable resource which needs monitoring. Once that is realized, new thinkingwill be possible on leadership, on the role of finance and on value creation andextraction. This will ensure a new focus on core skills based on innovation-and anew interpretation of the structure and organization of society.

    Understanding Know ledge ManagementMarc Demarest

    Know ledge is the key to effective competition. The challenge for compan iesrequiring participation in know ledge-intensive sectors of the global company is toorganize themselves so that they can recognize that, for example, commercialknowledg e is different in kind from philosophical and scientific knowled ge. Theaim is effective performance, not eternal truths since commerce is about thetransitory. All commercial knowledg e is social and is traded. In fact all compan ieshave know ledge economies working within the organisation.There are four stages-discerning knowledg e, choosing a container,dissemination and the use made of the knowledge. Understanding how the stagesoperate in the company is essential to the successful knowledg e managem entprocess. In addition, to be successful the process has to be explicitly supported,manag ed and measured. Know ledge actually comprises multiple networks or nodesof knowledg e linked together. The four categories of knowledg e are imperative orcultural, predictive or having a pattern, bound by rules and prescriptions forperformance. All are tacit or shared, embodied in raw m aterials, mechan isms,busines s practices and processes and environment and culture, and will move fromsofter to harder forms of embodim ent. To be useful, know ledge must be distributed;only that way can it increase company performance in the market place.

    Know ledge manag ement is the systematic underpinn ing, observatism,measurem ent and optimization of the companys knowledg e economies. Allknowledg e manage ment programm es need to be focused on the income statement;how this is achieved will depend on the specific comp any culture, structure andaims. Comm ercial knowledg e is useful only in proportion to its productivity in realcommerce. Know ledge manag ement is to an extent an issue of perception. Itnonetheless requires an infrastructure-cultural, operational and technical. A ChiefKnow ledge Officer needs to be appointed to manag e the companys knowledg eassets in much the same way as the CFO manages its capital.

    Innovation begins, as show n by 3M s Post-It Note, with the construction of a newkind of knowledg e within the firm. But the need is for repeated innovation withincreasingly high levels of re-use. Busine ss process re-engineering is a necessaryprecursor to innovation. This means that time-to-market and time-to-decide are thetwo most critical time metrics today. Too often the end of the process has beenmanaged alone ; it is now necessary to manag e the front-end, market identification ;product and service d esign. Kno wledge manag ement has a crucial role in this.

    Long Range Planning Vol. 30 June 1997

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    Developing Intellectual Capital atSkandiaLeifEdvinsson

    WHEN YOU BUY A COMPANY, what do you buy? Thefixed assets? Or do you look for some more sustainableassets? What do yo u measure? The number of customers? The number of nodes in the network of thevirtual corporation? What do you value? The numberof working hours? The number of good ideas?

    The reason wh y Skandia started to focus on intellectual capital was, among other things, a need for anew logic regarding the development of knowledgeintensive services. This is based on the very simplemetaphor of a tree with fruit as well as roots. For thelong-term sustainability of an organization it is muchmore important to focus on nurturing the roots thanharvesting the fruit. The long-term idea might evenbe to get a new balance with a leadership focus onhow the tree is flourishing. A focus on intellectualcapital provides an effective instrument to managean d develop the company. It will also serve as a usefulindicator when benchmarking the company againstother companies. It will stimulate renewal an d development. It is also a better tool for evaluating the softassets of the organization. Therefore, in the finalanalysis, intellectual capital becomes at least asimportant as financial capital in providing truly sustainable earnings.

    The search in Skandia for this new logic startedmore than a decade ago when both the CEO, Mr BjornWalrath, an d the Deputy CEO, Mr Jan R. Carendi,began to realize the need for a more holistic an d balanced perspective of ho w to develop and nurture service organizations and encourage growth. This is alsovery much in line with the new insights on quantummanagement leadership , i.e. a more holistic an d balanced view.

    Most of this is common sense bu t the challenge isto turn it into common practice! Skandia's responsewas to begin to develop the idea of an intellectualcapital function, in addition to the existing traditional

    PergamonPII: 50024-6301(97)00016-2

    This article describes Skandia's approach tomeasuring Intellectual Capital. As neither 'humancapital' nor 'structural capital' are representedin traditional accounting systems, Skandiadeveloped their own method for capturing thetrue value potential of the organization with thehelp of two models, the Skandia Value Schemeand the Skandia Navigator. 1997 ElsevierScience Ltd

    functions, such as Director of Finance, Director ofMarketing, etc. In 1991, Skandia AFS formally established an Intellectual Capital function headed by aDirector of Intellectual Capital-the first ever in theworld.But, going back to Why?, this also needs a broaderperspective. The new knowledge era requires aknowledge economy. That is very evident when youlook at the major investment streams. In the industrialsociety, investment used to go into plant, equipmentand capital tools. Today, a major proportion of theinvestment goes into knowledge upgrading or competence development leading to human capital.Another major investment stream goes .into thedevelopment of information technologies leading tovalue added networks, global area networks, etc. Thisis something that is invisible on the corporate balancesheet. One paradox which is emerging is that investing in the areas of human capital and IT leads toa short-term deterioration of profits which in turnreduces the value of the balance sheet, thereby reducing the book value of the organization. To pu t itbriefly, the paradox is that the more is invested inknowledge upgrading and IT, the less is the value ofth e organization!

    Long Range Planning. Vol. 30. No . 3. pp . 366 to 373. 1997 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

    Printed in Great Britain0024-6301/97 $17 .00+0.00

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    ________________________________ ~ L ________________________________10.00 .-------------------------------------------------------,

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    IndustriesIndustries1 Banks 6 Paper 11 Manufacturing 16 Retail 21 Health2 Utilit ies 7 Dept. Stores 12 Insurance 17 Securities 22 Communications3 Oi l 8 Plastics 13 Instruments 18 Movies 23 Printing4 Cars 9 Glass 14 Food Stores 19 Food 24 Software5 Nondurables 10 Electron cs 15 Computers 20 Drugs

    Mean ratios of acquisition price to book value of acquired entities classified by 2-digit industry codes. Sample consistsof largest acquisitions during 1981-1993 period. where the minimum acquisition pr ice was $500 mi l l ion. Sample size is 391.

    FIGURE 1. Financial information and corporate aquisition values.

    A society where a major proportion of the investment stream goes into these intangibles needs anothermapping system. To quote Bill Davidow: "There is aneed to move to a ne w level in accounting, one thatmeasures a company's momentum .. ".1 In Skandia wecall this "the need for a future accounting".

    Hidden ValuesTo this broad perspective could also be added theview of the stock market. A stock market analyst inSweden observes that the stars on the stock exchangeattract more with their knowledge than with theirsubstance. By looking at the market value versus thebook value, it is evident that a major proportion ofgrowth companies, such as Intel, Microsoft, Netscape,are valued way beyond book value. Most of the companies going through mergers an d acquisitions in theUS during the period 1981-1993 were valued atbetween 2-9 times their book value. See Figure 1, anillustration by Baruch Lev in SEC report 1996. *

    This gap could be described as the intellectual capi-

    'SEC Workshop on "The Reporting ofIntangible Assets", Wash-ington, 11-12 April 1996.

    tal. Another word for it is Tobins Q, i.e. the ratio ofmarket value to book value.

    This leads to another paradox. Today there is a welldefined and well-developed system for measuring ofthe book value. However, for the gap there are onlyqualified analyses, i.e. a kind of ad hoc measurement.Another contribution from the SEC Symposium isthat such a disclosure should perhaps be presentedin some sort of supplement to the financial report inorder to increase insight into a corporation's workabout prospective renewal and development work.The idea is not to distort the financial information,bu t rather to supplement it. The SEC Commissioner,Steven Wallman, even envisages that in the futuresuch supplements could constitute the major part ofany report about a corporation's future earningspotential, and the financial aspect would representthe supplementary information. The Skandia approach could be seen as a benchmark.A new balance is also emerging which could beillustrated as follows (Figure 2): on the asset side is thefinancial capital, on the debt side the non-financialcapital, or intellectual capital. Therefore it is possibleto develop a tentative ne w balance sheet as shown inFigure 2. Here, the intellectual capital is a debt itemwhich is regarded in the same way as equity. It isbased on the principle that Ie is borrowed from stake-

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    Non-financialcapital

    Assets

    Good willTechnologyCompetence

    DebtEquity

    Intellectualcapital

    FIGURE 2. Intellectual capital as debt.

    OfficialIalancesheetHiddenvalues

    holders such as customers, employees etc. Thecounterbalance, from an accounting viewpoint, isgoodwill. The major message is, however, that it constitutes hidden values. But another paradox is that,from an accounting point of view, goodwill is a trashitem. As an intangible item, goodwill should bededucted as quickly as possible, thereby actuallyreducing the value ofthe balance sheet. From a knowl-edge value viewpoint however, it could be consideredto reflect the intellectual value which grows overtime.I t follows that intellectual capital is: supplementary information to financial infor-mation; non-financial capital; a debt item, not an asset item.This kind of thinking led Skandia management torecognize that there is a need to bring these hiddenvalues to the surface. This was especially evident inthe rapidly growing entrepreneurial unit: SkandiaAFS. So an intellectual capital function was formedthere in 1991. The goal of the IC function is to growand develop intellectual capital as a visible, lastingvalue, complementary to the traditional balancesheet. The IC function provides a link between otherdevelopment functions like Business Development,Human Resource Development and InformationTechnology Development. The operations of the ICfunction include initiating new measurement toolsand ratios, implementing innovative programmes an dprojects for rapid learning and knowledge transparency and nurturing profitable knowledge sharing.

    Mission and DefinitionWithin Skandia AFS, intellectual capital was initiallydefined as "the possession of knowledge, appliedexperience, organisational technology, customerDeveloping Intellectual Capital at Skandia

    relationships, and professional skills that providesSkandia AFS with a competi tive edge in the market" .The value of intellectual capital was determined bythe extent to which these intangible assets would beturned into financial returns for Skandia AFS as awhole.

    According to the CEO of Skandia AFS, the aspiration was to have an accelerated, steep learning curvethat would rapidly integrate corporate knowledgeinto tangible assets and enable AFS to apply it withmaximum competitive effect, thereby turning AFSinto both a learning and a teaching organization. Thiswas refined later on into the concept of an intelligentorganization. The key point in this is that the leadtime between learning and teaching should be as shortas possible. This ratio might nowadays be measuredas organizational float.The intellectual capital mission at Skandia AFSwas defined as follows:o To identify and to enhance the visibility an d

    measurability of intangible and soft assets.o To capture and support packaging and accessi

    bility by knowledge transparency an d knowledgetechnologies.o To cultivate and channel intellectual capital

    through professional development, training andIT networking.o To capitalize an d leverage by adding value

    through faster recycling of knowledge andincreased commercialized transfer of skills andapplied experience.

    In 1992, Skandia AFS started a stock-taking of thesehidden values. This led to a very long list of itemsthat were valuable, bu t not disclosed in traditionalaccounting systems. The list consisted of items suchas trade marks, concessions, customer databases,fund management systems, IT systems, core competencies, key persons, partners and alliances, as wellas about 50 more items. The list was too long andunwieldy. I t was therefore reduced, based on themajor decisive characteristics. This led to the simplified definition of intellectual capital as follows:

    Human capital+ Structural capital= Intellectual capital

    This definition emerged out of the insights gainedwhen AFS was starting new units around the world.These new units represented mainly human capital,while in those units which had already been in operation in the market for some time had something elseas well as human capital. Those dimensions beyondhuman capital were left behind when the staffhome. They were, for example, the customer database,the concessions, the IT systems, etc. So what waslearned from this was that out of human capital grows

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    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ ~ ~ - - - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -some kind of structural capital. Metaphoricallyspeaking, this could even be compared with a treetrunk which shows a number of year rings. For everyyear , the organization adds something beyond thestaff. More and more structure is emerging.So a key role of leadership is the transformation ofhuman capital into structural capital. Furthermore,the human capital cannot be owned, it can only berented. The structural capital can, from a shareholder's point of view, be owned and traded. Therefore , human capital is much more volatile , andstructural capital can be used as a leverage for financing corporate growth. Consequently, the banks andventure capitalists, amongst others, are more interested in structural capital. Unfortunately, neither thehuman capital nor the structural capital is visiblein the traditional accounting system. Skandia AFSinitiated efforts to change this.

    To be able to disclose these structural capital assets,it was necessary to develop a reporting system. Someof the areas on which information was now requiredwere, for example, customer relations, distributionchannels, structural development, human resources ,IT and innovation. All this was assimilated into areport, an d the idea was to try to get all the information on one page. The ambition was to have a simple overview of financial as well as non-financial data.Such a one-page report wa s presented to the board ofSkandia AFS in 1993. The reception was enthusiasticand encouraging.

    The completion of this very first blueprint reportwas a part-time effort by the Director of IntellectualCapital and Deputy Controller, Mr Ake Freij. To beable to develop this type of reporting further it wasevident that a supplementary function had to becreated. This led to the recruitment of the first ICController, Mrs Elisabeth Gemzell-Mikkelsen, in1993.

    A New LanguageGiven all these paradoxes and common sense concepts and reporting needs, a new language wasrequired to support the changed approach to reportingwhat was happening and what should be nurtured. Inan article in Fortune, Tom Stewart put it like this:" Intellectual Capital is something that you cannottouch , bu t still makes you rich" .2This approach hasnow been developed into a Skandia value scheme asdescribed in Figure 3.

    It has become evident that there are a number ofbuilding blocks adding to the non-financial value ofa corporation, or the gap between book value andmarket value. The term intellectual capital has itsorigin in intellectual property; the packaged and legally protected knowledge components in a company.

    This is of fundamental importance for global trade.

    FIGURE 3. The Skandia value scheme.

    The new world trade organization, WTO, is organizedinto three bodies: trade in goods, trade in servicesand trade in intellectual properties. The foresight andcomplexity of the emerging global trade is very muchhighlighted around issues related to intellectualproperties such as patents , software, copyrights, etc.Therefore the need for a language for value extractionand value creation becomes acute. The findings fromSkandia suggest that such a language will have tobe supported by numbers . To give an illustration: toreport that a customer database is large is no t verytangible. To say that the customer database is growingby about 40% over a 12-month period is tangible.Furthermore, numbers are to a large extent a globallanguage that appeals also to financial analysts andshareholders.

    A Balanced Annual ReportBalanced annual reporting is shown from the veryfirst page in a new report on Skandia AFS. The concept behind this was the need to have financial aswell as non-financial reporting. At the same time thebalanced score card approach by Kaplan & Nortonemerged. 3

    In Skandia, the first balanced annual report waspresented in 1994. However, this was an internaldocument and was not published outside SkandiaAFS. During 1995, Skandia as a whole decided toshare this information and applied a system'ilticapproach to the whole of Skandia in an appropriatedocument. The first document was published in May1995, under the heading- Visualising Intellectual

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    ________________________________ ~ L ________________________________Capital. This was a. supplement to the SkandiaAnnual Report 1994. As a supplement to the annualreport it highlighted the fact that it was not integratedinto the traditional balance sheet. Furthermore, itgave expression to the separate documentary approach which was in progress.

    This first public report was followed by a supplement to the 1995 Interim Report, 6 months later.The title of that publication was Renewal and Devel-opment in Skandia. During the Spring of 1996, thesupplement to the 1995 Annual Report was publishedunder the heading Value Creating Processes. Duringthe early Autumn 1996, the supplement to the 1996Interim Report called Power of Innovation was published.

    Phases in the Development ofIntellectual CapitalThe following major phases can be regarded as a pattern for the development of intellectual capital:0 Missionary0 Measurement0 Leadership0 Technology0 Capitalizing0 FuturizingThe first phase around missionary work focuses onthe insights and logic behind intellectual capital. Itcovers, among others, the area of the metaphor of thetree, as well as the need for a supplementary mappingsystem.

    The second phase around measurement focuses onthe development of the data, as well as the language.At Skandia this included development of the IC Controller functions an d alignment with the accountingsystem.The third phase focuses on the leadership actingupon the new insights from the data. This is alsocalled the navigation dimension to highlight the needfor navigation into the future and to nurture renewaland development rather than just management of thepast.

    Technology focuses on the development of technology tools for the packaging of knowledge as wellas communication technologies for rapid knowledgesharing. What could be seen in Skandia were alsothe evolutionary steps from Admin Technology (AT)with mainframes, to IT with PCs, to CommunicationTechnologies (CT) with Intranets to EntertainmentTechnologies (ET) with customer amusement technologies, e.g. CD-ROMS.Developing Intellectual Capital at Skandia

    The capitalizing phase focuses on packaged organizational technology for recycling, as well as intellectual properties.

    The futurizing phase focuses on the continuousrenewal and development and the nurturing of theinnovation capital. This is illustrated, among otherthings, by the establishment of the first of Skandia'sFuture Centers.The above phases are the steps thathave been covered during the last five years at Skandia, on a pioneering basis. The logic is sequential, butthe implementation is parallel.

    Valuation--the Skandia ValueSchemeThe process of evaluating intellectual capital isshown in Figure 3. The model illustrates the majorbuilding blocks of intellectual capital an d builds ona reduction approach. This approach starts with thestock market value and deducts the the financial capital. This leaves intellectual capital as the balancingitem. Considering the simplified definition of intellectual capital, the next step shows the two buildingblocks of human capital and structural capital.Deducting the value of the human capital from theintellectual capital leaves structural capital as the balancing item.

    Within structural capital, the major component leftbehind when the employees go home is customercapital. Deducting the value of the customer relationships from the structural capital leaves organizationalcapital as the balancing value. Within organizationalcapital the value of processes could be extracted leaving innovation capital as the balancing value. Withinthe innovation capital it is possible to identify thevalue of intellectual properties such as patents, trademarks, etc. This leaves intangible assets as the balancing value.

    This simplified value scheme can be refined andelaborated, and it helps management to define thevalues and relationships in each box. One interestingratio emerging from this exercise is that in establishedunits, usually the human capital is a smaller component than the structural capital.

    One of the implications of such an observation isthe need for the leadership to focus on the value ofthe structural capital and on its renewal and development. This also goes for human capital. The balancebetween human and structural capital leads to valuable insights regarding long-term stakeholder valueextraction. Is there a lot of idle, untapped potentialwithin the boundaries of structural capital? If thiswere the case with 'physical' capital, it would attractthe immediate attention of the leadership and management. As the structural capital, to a large extent,is invisible in traditional accounting, the important

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    FIGURE 4. The Skandia Navigator.

    question of value extraction does no t gain the sameimmediate attention.

    Navigation and the SkandiaNavigatorThe metaphor of navigation constitutes a search foranother language of dynamic reporting beyond management. It aims to highlight the continuous processof adding to the long-term sustainability ofthe organization an d nurturing the roots for sustainable valuegeneration.

    With the reporting format, mentioned earlier, of aone-page report of non-financial items emerged theSkandia Navigator (see Figure 4).

    This very simple metaphor emerges out of the needfor a ne w balance between financial and non-financialissues. It is also a balance between information onpast financial performance, information about today,including human resources and processes, and abouttomorrow's renewal and development. It also takesinto account the external operating environment.Summarizing al l these dimensions into one reportingformat leads to the Skandia Navigator. There are sixdifferent focus areas. The expanded leadershipresponsibility is immediately clear.

    This model could also be viewed as a house. Thefinancial focus is the roof. The customer focus andprocess focus are the walls. The human focus is thesoul of the house. The renewal and developmentfocus is the platform. With such a metaphor, renewaland development becomes the critical bottom line forsustainabili y.

    The Skandia Navigator also has similarities withthe balanced score card approach developed byKaplan and Norton. However, the layout of the Skandia Navigator amplifies the renewal an d development

    dynamics, as well as the operating environment.These different focus areas all add up to the intellectual capital value of the organization.

    Within each such focus area it is possible to developwhat Skandia calls indicators. The definition of theseindicators is general rather than being defined as precise ratios. However, they are numerical. The indicators are developed from a strategic traditionalapproach. It starts with the business concept, coremission and ambition. These strategies lead to criticalsuccess factors. The critical success factors are translated into data which are further developed into indicators. Such indicators can act as target indicators, aswell as follow-up indicators. They are summarizedinto the Navigator.

    This summary gives the balanced overviewbetween financial and non-financial dimensions.Experience shows that there are restrictions on ho wmany indicators can be handled. It would appear thatan ideal number of indicators is about 3-4 per focusarea. For the time being, therefore, there are no plansto aggregate the data from individual units into a corporate Navigator. In Skandia, the present reportingdevelopment uses the Navigator more an d more, bothas a planning tool and as a follow-up tool. As experience grows, it might be possible later on to consolidate some indicators on a corporate level.

    One of the major aspirations underlying the Navigator is to develop an accounting language for thesustainability of the organization. This language is,furthermore, a global language as it is numerical. Italso leads to a stronger leadership focus on the nonfinancial dimensions.Recently, Skandia has also used the Navigator forindividual performance appraisal, as well as rewardsassessment. This makes it possible to have a balancedreward system emerging with a focus on financial aswell as non-financial dimensions.

    Future Accounting MethodsGiven the information contained in the Navigator, theleadership will no w have a broader perspective on thevalue potential of the organization. As Tom Johnsonsays, "Intellectual capital looks far beyond the moreineffable assets, such as the ability of a company tolearn and adapt".4 The focus is on renewal an d development as well as on it s interaction with the operatingenvironment and the internal environment. It is akind of 'edge accounting' which might concentrateon value extraction, but perhaps more so on valuecreation. Therefore it could be said that human capitalis no longer the major asset in comparison with structural capital. However, it is the most dynamic value.This led some Skandia executives to question the roleof the controller. What will be the label on the business cards of the controllers of tomorrow? Some of

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    ______________________________ ~ L _ ______________________________Dynamics Human capital Business assets

    Ie

    Majorhiddenvalues

    H u m a ~ ~ Intellectual resources assets ~- ! - ~ Intellectual- r - property -Structural capital

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    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ ~ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -References1. Bill Davidow, Los Angeles Times, August (1996).2. T. Stewart, Your company's most valuable asset: intellectual capital, Fortune 130(7)October, 28-33 (1994).3. Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, Using the balanced scorecard as a strategicmanagement system, Harvard Business Review 74(1). 75-85 (1996).4. Tom Johnson, Los Angeles Times, August (1995).

    Leif Edvinsson is VicePresident and Corpor-ate Director Intellec-tual Capital at Skandia,Sweden.

    Long Range Planning Vol. 30 June 1997