Intellectual capital has been around for as long as companies have had customers. It's what makes a company worth more than the sum of its countable parts. Before you can measure something, you have to know what you're counting. A universally accepted definition is the first step toward standardization.
Some people mistake intellectual capital for nerds in a think-tank.
The truth is, we are still working toward a universal definition of intellectual capital. However it is valued, the gap between a company's market value and the value of all its tangible assets has widened significantly over the last two decades. Simultaneously, corporate investments in tangible capital stock have been declining. As a result, traditional accounting measures can no longer adequately determine the real value of companies. Evaluating intellectual capital can help make a company more efficient, more profitable, and more competitive.