Twenty‐first century management rules: the management of relationships as intangible assets

As much of the developed world faces a recessionary tide, age‐old questions on the nature of creating and sustaining lasting market value are once again being asked. In the past, questions of market value creation were answered by investing in tangible assets. Today, those same questions are being answered by investing in intangible assets. Intangible assets, such as knowledge, patents, organizational structure, copyrights, information technology, business processes and brand, among others, now constitute the majority of value created by firms today. However, ultimately, businesses are made up of a network of relationships: relationships with customers, employees, suppliers and partners. These “relationship assets” constitute a firm’s most valuable store of capital and their most important intangible assets. The ability to create and sustain maximum market value, therefore, requires a focused set of twenty‐first century management rules. Rules focused on intangible, relationship asset leverage.