Chapter 8 Intangible Resources and Capabilities

Overview

Earlier chapters explained how a few simple resources lie at the heart of any organization, determining how it performs through time. These systems contain people, though, and people have feelings and capabilities that determine how they behave: doing more or less of what you would like, or deciding to change from one state to another. This chapter explains the following:

• why intangible factors matter, and what you can do to understand, measure, and manage them
• how intangibles behave through time, responding to influences from elsewhere
• the impact of capabilities in driving business performance
• how intangibles influence the core architecture of simpler tangible factors