Business Success and the Facebook Generation

Historically, businesses have been very protective of their secrets. Concepts such as the protection of intellectual property have been the foundation of a company's value. However, what would happen to that "value" if your intellectual property was freely given to your competitors?

In his essay Intellectual Capital,  Professor Goran Roos states, "New business models have a higher dependency of intellectual capital than older ones. Hence designing them and understanding them requires an in-depth understanding of intellectual capital." This, of course, is perfectly true. "Intellectual capital", which I see as ideas and creativity, are vital for modern business success.

Is there a cultural clash looming that will destabilise this whole idea of ownership of intellectual capital? I think there might be, and it is a cultural force that cannot be legislated into submission. Let's look at three drivers that may unite to make IP outdated:

The first is the attitude of the next generation to privacy. For young people, the idea of copyright is already passé. But what is interesting is how they deal with their own privacy online. To some, this is a generation with no internal dialog, where every thought that pops in their head ends up on the screen. As Mark Zuckerberg observes, privacy is no longer a "social norm".Will this attitude transition into their working life. I suspect it will and not because they are intentionally trying to damage their employer. It is more that the idea of withholding interesting information will not occur to them.

The second driver is the increasing reduction of tenure. With staff churn reaching near 25%, it is almost unusual to have the same person in a role for two years. Undoubtedly many of those employees will migrate to competitors, along with their corporate knowledge. Industry sees this as a major threat.

Lastly, lean business methods have increasingly relied on outsourcing. In the past your ad agency may have known your marketing plans, but now it is possible to have vital knowledge scattered among a world of eLancers and virtual PAs.

There have always been traditional threats to IP, but we may be entering a world where protection of ideas is not only not possible, but not wanted or understood. So if there are no secrets, how will businesses differentiate themselves and where will value reside?

I believe that "vision" will hold the true value of businesses of the future. It will be the construction of unique and powerful vision and belief systems that will attract the best people and the most loyal customers.

The issues I have raised here are all currently seen as negatives, yet culturally we seem to be steadily heading in that direction. But if a company's value will be measured by their ambition and ability to solve problems and take on a cause, then maybe this is a corporate future we can look forward to.