Blog about China 2009 no. 5What is really the difference between the Professor Chen Yu invention: “Consumption Capital”, and what we in the Intellectual Capital world like to refer to as Customer Capital?This is not all that easy to answer. After two conferences on the Consumption Capital topic in Beijing, I am still confused.One of multiple possible answers is that it is a matter of macro vs. micro; that consumption capital comes from the need to make the people of a whole nation become bigger consumers, no matter the supplier.
Peder Hofman-Bang speaking in Beijing on Consumption Capital Dec. 09Whereas Customer Capital is more about creating mutual beneficial relationships between me as a supplier and my customers. Sure, I want them to consume more, but only from my company.Maybe you can argue that it is push vs. pull; transaction vs. interaction and so on.Anyway, I have a more positive view of the Consumption Capital idea after I have gained more knowledge about the Chinese economy – not only by reading papers from the west, but hearing about it first hand from Chinese government officials and economists. Stimulating consumption is key to sustainable growth. But the current stimulation package has to be altered from currently creating vast surpluses to increasing salaries, creating more efficient enterprises etc.As one distinguished army General said in his talk: we all know how to spend money – once we have money.
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Posted by Mary Adams on January 24, 2010 at 5:25pm
I still haven't loaded a lot of my own content into this new site (I intend to and encourage all our members to do so as well). But, in the meantime, I thought that it would be helpful to start adding some links to other folk's content (books, articles, presentations, videos) that I have also found helpful. This is a start. I hope that others will follow with more suggestions....
If I had to pick one article that sums up the perspective of the field of IC, it is this article, Dealing with the Knowledge Economy by J. Mouritsen, H. Thorsgaard Larsen, P.N Bukh. It is especially helpful because it contrasts IC with the perspectives of the balanced scorecard. In the authors' view, the balanced scorecard (BSC) is an industrial-era tool.
Now, some will think that it unjust (and maybe confusing) to identify the BSC so strongly with the industrial era. After all, BSC is viewed as the most prominent tool that is trying to expand corporate thinking beyond a purely financial perspective--to see the intangible drivers of tangible results.
But there is a real argument to be made that the BSC is mostly about top-down control whereas IC is more about leveraging bottom-up knowledge flows. While we all know that businesses will always have to balance the top-down and bottom-up, the series of charts and discussions in this article will help you think about the implications of these two perspectives.
Have you read this article? What do you think? Do you have a nomination for the article that has most influenced you?
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