Maintaining intangible assets is critical for businesses of any size or industry. From a small business with a few employees to a multinational enterprise, organizations must understand their intangible assets, their value, life cycles, transformations and their potential applications at different stages. Without this knowledge of the underlying assets, businesses would be unable to maintain their assets effectively, leading to waste instead of profit in a timely manner.

This need has become significantly more critical in the digital age, where knowledge-based SMEs are driving economies, and their underlying assets are more intangible than physical. Every day, we hear news about business acquisitions with astronomical dollar figures, many based on intangible assets like intellectual property and information. Intangible assets, unlike physical assets, are dynamic — they live, evolve and transform throughout their lifecycle.

The maintenance of intangible assets requires a robust, iterative management system to track their performance and ensure alignment with business objectives. ISO 55001 provides a framework to support this, enabling organizations to strategically manage intangible assets for long-term success.

Related: How Intangible Assets Affect Business Value

Business assets enable the business objective. In fact, the business objective itself is an asset when it utilizes the capabilities of its stakeholders. There is a direct relationship between the business objective and the value of its enabling assets. As the business objective utilizes assets more, the asset's value increases.........

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