The IAFS launched its 2010 membership drive this past week. This is why. On February 28, new US SEC regulations will drive into the boardrooms risk, reputation and intangible asset management. 

You have a decision. Will you be at the table or on the menu?

These regs mean that every board member, in fact every top executive, can expect major new challenges. Members of the Intangible Asset Finance Society (IAFS) will be prepared. Here’s how:

1. Thought Leadership. The IAFS is the only interdisciplinary Society of professionals committed to the financial exploitation of intangible assets. That translates into enhanced pricing power; lower operating and credit costs; and higher net incomes and earnings multiples.

2. Risk Management. A lost reputation can destroy a firm overnight. IAFS can keep you up to date with risk management strategies for ethics, innovation, quality, safety, environmental sustainability, and security.

3. Preferential Pricing. Society members receive preferential rates for IAFS products at our new store and discounted registration to various professional meetings. Discounted registrations for the March ICAP Ocean Tomo meeting in San Francisco and the June IP Business Congress in Munich, for example, are now offered.

4. Incentive Premium. Sign on for your academic or corporate membership including payment by March 15 and receive a complementary copy of the IAFS’s latest book, Mission: Intangible. Managing risk and reputation to create enterprise value (a $29.95 value).

Click here to learn how our strengths in Thought Leaders and Risk Management, financial benefits such preferential pricing, and premiums such as the book shown at right make joining the Society today an offer you can't refuse.

Among the educational services offered by the Society are the Mission:Intangible® Monthly Briefings. These one hour events comprise about 45 minutes of prepared remarks backed up by presentation materials, and about 15 minutes of responses to questions submitted by listeners. Often, because of time constraints, there are questions leftover. With this month’s M:I briefing, we begin serving answers to those leftovers on the first Monday after the event.

On Friday 6 November, Judith Giordan, Managing Director with Steel City Re, a Senior Advisor to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance and formerly, a Vice President with International Flavors and Fragrances, Pepsi Co, and Henkel, presented evidence that there is significant intangible asset value in diversity. She also addressed strategies for asset monetization. Last, she answered questions from the many listeners. The presentation and audio recordings of the session can be downloaded from the Society's events page. Here are the leftovers.
 
QUESTION: What would you say from the data are the top three concepts executives should repeat as a mantra for creating enterprise value from diversity?
 

1. There is a valid and documented BUSINESS CASE for the value of diversity and its linkage to building corporate value and reputation – tangibles and intangibles. There is no more need to validate this case. There is a need to take action.
2. To benefit from the value of diversity, PROCESSES that foster conformance and not programs for compliance must be built, nurtured, measured and improved – and leaders at all levels should have fostering diversity as a part of their performance goals linked to and not separate from business performance goals.
3. Follow the PLATINUM RULE: Do unto others (in this case women) as they would be done unto not as senior leadership believes is good for them. Use the conformance process as a means for defining the nexus of success requirements of women to move into leadership positions and the business and use this nexus as the basis to build and measure opportunities for mutual growth.

QUESTION: Are there data on the composition of the boards of companies with the more spectacular failures; e.g., Enron, Lehman, etc, and do these data support your model of the magic of 3 women?
 
First and foremost I want to be sure no one thinks I am trying to “take credit” for a model of 3 of any kind. I’m simply reporting data developed in surveys by organizations such as McKinsey, Catalyst and Pepperdine University – to name a few. My role in this is to summarize the data and attempt to draw constructs from which we can all learn and benefit going forward for enhancing corporate reputation and building a solid business case for the value of diversity – in this case gender diversity.

That said, IF my ability to surf the Internet is correct, the data below speak for themselves as to the question. Neither Enron, Lehman Brothers nor AIG had three women on their Board. 2 at max – for AIG; 1 each for Enron and Lehman. Indeed it would appear that: Lehman had no women in Senior Management positions either. Those who can surf better than I, please correct if I have this wrong.

Enron Board -17 members with 1 woman

Lehman Brothers Senior Management: no women
o Richard S. Fuld, Jr. - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
o Riccardo Banchetti - Co-Chief Executive Officer, Europe and the Middle East
o Jasjit S. Bhattal - Chief Executive Officer, Asia-Pacific
o Gerald A. Donini - Global Head of Equities
o Eric Felder - Global Co-Head of Fixed Income
o Scott J. Freidheim - Co-Chief Administrative Officer
o Michael Gelband - Global Head of Capital Markets
o David Goldfarb - Chief Strategy Officer
o Alex Kirk - Global Head of Principal Investing
o Hyung S. Lee - Global Co-Head of Fixed Income
o Stephen M. Lessing - Head of Client Relationship Management
o Ian T. Lowitt - Chief Financial Officer and Co-Chief Administrative Officer
o Herbert H. McDade III - President and Chief Operating Officer
o Hugh E. McGee III - Global Head of Investment Banking
o Christian Meissner - Co-Chief Executive Officer, Europe and the Middle East
o Thomas A. Russo - Vice Chairman/Chief Legal Officer
o George H. Walker - Global Head of Investment Management

Lehman Brothers Board of Directors: 1 woman
o Richard S. Fuld, Jr.
o Michael L. Ainslie
o John F. Akers
o Roger S. Berlind
o Thomas H. Cruikshank
o Marsha Johnson Evans
o Sir Christopher Gent
o Jerry A. Grundhofer
o Roland A. Hernandez
o Henry Kaufman
o John D. Macomber

2007 Board of AIG: http://www.ezodproxy.com/AIG/2008/AR2007/HTML2/aig_ar2007_0052.htm
• 2 women 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Packages comprising the audio recordings of all Mission:Intangible Monthly Briefings and their associated slides, including the 6 Nov 2009 program described above, can be purchased from the Society. Please visit the events page to obtain more information on a specific program, or contact the Executive Secretary.

Earlier today, the Society’s Mission:Intangible® Monthly Briefing by Dr. Judy Giordan of Steel City Re spoke to the demonstrated link between managerial and directorial diversity and corporate enterprise value. Thanks to her data-rich presentation, we better appreciate that diversity under critical conditions can create value through the wisdom of crowds. Apparently, so does Chrysler.

Earlier this week, Chrysler Group LLC Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne laid out plans to revive the struggling Auburn Hills automaker. His plans -- replenishing its lineup with high-quality and attractive models to more than double sales within five years and start generating profit in 2011 – were derided as generic by many analysts.

But not dismissed. This is why. Marchionne and his management team, a mix of executives brought over from Italy and promising managers at Chrysler whom he promoted, have been working in secret on the plan since Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in June. This team of diverse individuals is differentiating itself from generic auto strategy teams in other ways. David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, notes "the youth of the team kind of brings energy and enthusiasm to the process."

Score one for subtly signaling the intangible asset value of diversity.

There’s more. Chrysler is working hard to improve quality. "We're not in denial in relation to the public perception of quality at Chrysler," said quality chief Doug Betts, who worked previously at Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. Chrysler now has 1,500 people addressing its poor quality, focusing on manufacturing.

There are skeptics. "Their quality reputation is dismal right now, and you don't change that in a couple of years," said Jack Nerad of Kelley Blue Book.

Well, maybe not usually. But reputation can be restored quickly if stakeholders find compelling reasons to expect change. After all, reputation is an expectation of future behavior.  This is why. Reputation grows out of the totality of information stakeholders receive about a company — information that creates the cumulative impression of how the company manages all its business processes. These are the business processes that create an ethical work environment, drive innovation, assure quality, uphold safety, promote sustainability, and provide security. Along with their embodiment in brands, trademarks, and patents, these processes are the intangible assets which have become the primary determinants of corporate success or failure today.

Industry experts were impressed by Chrysler’s forthright emphasis on the quality issue, just as they were impressed by the composition of the management team. The Company is signaling unambiguously a commitment to new and improved processes – commitments that are evidently reshaping reputation at this very moment.