When you look around, you see trees, plants and perhaps some birds. These organisms are visible to the naked eye. Two-thirds of life on earth is micro-organisms, which cannot be seen without a microscope.
In the 3.5 billion years that they have inhabited the earth, microbes have evolved and adapted to nearly every type of environment. That’s why they can live in the most extreme places. Everywhere there is food, there is life.And microbes eat almost everything, including metals, acids, petroleum and natural gas. The number of, and the number of different species of, microorganisms are enormous and the new species are discovered everyday.
In the world of business, the same thing is happening and where are humans and organizations, there are invisible factors that should be controlled and measured accurately to achieve institutional goals and objectives.
Kaplan-Norton concept about Intangible Assets:
Intangible assets are invaluable to sustainable value creation, but their value derives from their interrelation and cannot be measured independently. Their soft nature makes measurement more subjective than financial measurements of organizational performance. The learning and growth perspective of the BSC shows how an organization can align its intangible assets to its strategy.
There are objectives and measures for three components of intangible assets: human capital, information capital, and organization capital. They must be aligned with the objectives for the internal processes and integrated with each other so there are synergies among them. Three targeted approaches are strategic job families, the strategic IT portfolio, and the organization change agenda.
Naous Concept to Invisible factors:
Invisible factors= Intangible Assets+ Invisible items
Invisible factors are defined as intangible assets with other invisible items that are found in the organization but unseen like bacteria.
Invisible factors:
-Core values
-Corporate Culture
-Workplace Environment
-Projected Identity
-Innovation
–geniality
-Sustainability
-etc…
When someone (customer, patient, visitor, prospective employee) first walks into your organization, their initial impression will be created by the physical surroundings. They will have a very different impression if you’re located in a fancy new office building with a fountain in the lobby than if you’re located in a rehabilitated warehouse down at dockside. Knowing this, you’ve doubtless put a lot of thought into the design and furnishing of your space, probably with professional help to make sure you get the details just right. But lasting impressions aren’t created by things that can be seen by the eye, are they? Rather, they’re created by the unseen qualities that spark emotional reactions. This emotionality is vital to the future of every business, including that of your organization. Most business leaders don’t put the same detailed thought into the design of this Invisible Architecture that they invest in physical design. If you take the time, though, it can be one of the best investments you’ll ever make. This special report considers four interrelated dimensions of the architecture which can be seen only with the heart and not with the eyes: Core Values, Corporate Culture, Workplace Environment, and Projected Identity.
Core Values: Most organizations have (or should have) a statement of values, but very few have effectively utilized their commitment to these values as a resource for recruiting and retaining great people and competing for loyal customers.
Corporate Culture: Culture is to the organization what character and personality are to the individual. Culture is the only sustainable source of competitive advantage, because it is the one thing that no competitor can copy or steal. Culture is defined by a very small number of overarching themes, which are then woven into all of the different subcultures throughout the organization.
Workplace Environment: This is the emotional climate of the work unit: what it feels like to work in each part of the organization. Workplace environment is the most important determinant of whether people feel engaged in the work itself, or are simply going through the motions for a paycheck. Unfortunately, a small number of negative people can poison a workplace the way one or two smokers quickly fill a room with toxic cigarette smoke.
Projected Identity:
This is the external identity of the organization as perceived by people on the inside. It is how people answer the universal icebreaker question, “What do you do?” This identity substantially determines the degree to which people take pride in their organization and in their jobs. It’s the difference between answering that icebreaker question with “I’m just a housekeeper,” or “I’m a nurse in the Peace Corps,” or “I’m an account executive at Enron.
You cannot only measure intangible assets in the organization without looking at other invisible items.
By 2030, Organisations will have to convert invisible factors to tangible incomes in order to remain in market.