Over at this thread on trust, I found this lovely quote attributed to the late Queen Juliana gave to a UN conference, some time in the 1950's:
“It starts with goodwill, which leads to understanding. From understanding of each other we develop trust, and trust is the foundation of co-operation.”

This is an absolutely critical quote because before spreadsheets and global accountants cane along, leaders used to know that goodwill was sytemic to the human realtionship context that their organsiations developed over time. (If you want an interview my father ans I did with Sir Adrian Cadbury in 1989 on this issue of corporate goverenance, send me your snailmail wcbn007@easynet.co.uk; I'll post you the filofax card we published)

In fact, intangibles were a synonym for goodwill meaning impossible to measure separately the way tangibles can. But then the global accountants cheated with the English language. They started splitting intangibles bidding off valuation algorithms to whichever professional sector wanted to make a business case their way- I know because that started with brand, something I have researched in more countries and written about in more books and academic papers than just about anyone. Then it moved on across some of the other terms in the centre of the map (2nd picture from the left). This is why -measures of all the intellectual, human and socila capitals which ultimately provide a separate number have fallen for the global accountant's vain attempt to retain a monopoly rule over the boardroom's measurements, instead of knowing what queen Juliana did in the 1950s. Dont separate intangibles with addition (the mathematic operation of separation). Map them as a systemic whole with value multiplication, knowing thyat will mean governing with a second auditing system of the sort that global accountants have proven mathematically opposed to serving. posted by ..., 1:20 PM  permalink