Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Katja Pook and Campbell Warden
Principle <strong>of</strong> coordination: Foresight enrols multiple actors to participate in decision arenas where
conjectures on <strong>the</strong> future are contested and debated. Supported by various data and opinions, <strong>the</strong>
foresight process aligns participant actors around emergent agendas, resulting in a coordinated
mobilisation <strong>of</strong> people and resources.
Principle <strong>of</strong> action orientation: Foresight is not only about analysing or contemplating future
developments but also supporting actors to actively shape <strong>the</strong> future. Therefore, foresight
activities should only be undertaken when it is possible to act on <strong>the</strong> results.
(Based on <strong>the</strong> “ForeIntegra-RI: Practical Guide for integrating Foresight in Research Infrastructures
Policy Formulation”, 2007).
4.2 Intellectual capital management
“The traditional accounting model is based on <strong>the</strong> principle <strong>of</strong> historic cost (...). In providing a record <strong>of</strong>
what has happened in <strong>the</strong> past, historic cost accounts provide a useful starting point in assessing <strong>the</strong>
performance <strong>of</strong> a business. However, without forward looking information, <strong>the</strong> picture that <strong>the</strong>y
provide is incomplete. IC Statements take a different and complementary stance by considering those
things that are valuable in evaluating <strong>the</strong> future (ra<strong>the</strong>r than only <strong>the</strong> past).” (RICARDIS report, 2006,
p7.) The gap between book value and fair market value led to <strong>the</strong> realisation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong>
intangible assets and resulted in models for Intellectual Capital Reporting. Intellectual Capital is
mostly conceptualised as intangible assets, covering human, structural and relational capital (e.g.
MERITUM, 2002; German guidelines for ICR (2004); or <strong>the</strong> RICARDIS report (2006), see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Intellectual capital roots <strong>of</strong> an organisation (RICARDIS report, 2006, p. 17)
In <strong>the</strong> existing methods for IC reporting (ra<strong>the</strong>r than full-cycle managing) <strong>the</strong> degree <strong>of</strong> collaborative
knowledge sharing is quite different (compare e.g. <strong>the</strong> Austrian model according to <strong>the</strong>
Universitaetsgesetz and <strong>the</strong> German model, which is based to a large part on personal interaction in
workshops). In this article we refer to methods with a high degree <strong>of</strong> interaction. ICM is an extension,
including not only <strong>the</strong> reporting, but a full management cycle for continuous development.
As is <strong>the</strong> case in Technology Foresight, in ICM <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong> collaborative knowledge exchange and
creation is <strong>the</strong> most valuable, at least for organisational/regional development, because it involves
ga<strong>the</strong>ring multiple perspectives on strategically relevant issues, drawing <strong>the</strong> “big picture” 6 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
present and future <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organisation/region in its environment.
6 In air traffic control, <strong>the</strong> controllers each day at work have to get “<strong>the</strong> picture” before starting to manage <strong>the</strong> direction <strong>of</strong>
individual aircraft in upper air space. We should use this for management
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