It took four hundred years to perfect double-entry bookkeeping and the principles of modern accounting. We now have the best minds at work on intellectual capital and the experiences of a growing number of companies. If we do this right, we can construct a value system that will make companies more efficient, more competitive, and ultimately more valuable. Even more than that because intellectual capital measurement is not confined to business but is likely to be the first universal measurement tool for all human institutions we will be able to construct a more valuable society. That, of course, is the hope that emerged last out of Pandora s box.
Intellectual capital is indeed our best hope for continued prosperity into the twenty-first century.
And learning how to measure it is the only path for getting there. Michael S. Malone is the editor of Forbes ASAP .