The Technological Institute of Optics and Imaging (
AIDO) has received the certification guaranteeing its sustainable management and efficacy of its intellectual capital.
Elena Boronat, Head of the Technology Transfer Office (
T.T.O.) at
AIDO, accepted the certificate awarded by the director of the
Fraunhofer Institute for Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK (Berlin) in an act held in the
Free State of Bavaria before the European Union in Brussels.
Boronat explained that “we have obtained the accreditation proving that this system truly contributes to reaching the company’s strategic aims, systematically and sustainable evaluating its intangible assets.”
After meeting with the
AIDO representatives, the general director of the Comunitat Valenciana in Brussels,
Juan Manuel Revuelta, highlighted that “it is fundamental that the
SMEs of Valencia adapt a better methodology that support the development of intellectual capital, fundamentally in an advanced society and an economy focused on quality.”
By participating in the European Project
“Intellectual Capital Statement (ICS) Made in Europe, InCaS” −financed by the European Commission,
AIDO has become one of the pioneer centres in implementing this methodology.
The intellectual capital of an organisation is composed of the sum of various factors that are carried out through its routines, processes and business practices. This intangible asset is manifest through knowledge, relations and the capacity to innovate. Experts believe that a large part of the value of companies is not included in balance sheets and traditional accounts, where Intellectual Capital is only marginally registered.
InCaS aims to help organisations identify these immaterial resources (intellectual capital) which are critical for their success, while also making it possible to systematically manage them to reach the business´ success.
InCaS´ methodology allows it to turn an intangible into an indispensable variable in a company’s ability to reach its strategic aims, which is essential for businesses whose main asset is knowledge.
The origin of InCAS
This initiative arose in Germany through a pilot project consisting in the design of a methodology to manage intellectual capital in a group of German
SMEs. After its success, a new aim was clear: to standardise it as a tool at a European level. This is the point when
InCas was consolidated: a project that started in September, 2006 and ended in February, 2009. The main obstacle intangible values faced was being unquantifiable. How is a company’s knowledge measured? The problem arises in the inability to calculate terms of investment or banking. On the other hand, it is common to find a wide range of mechanisms on the market to control tangible elements in a company: invoicing, clients, suppliers, the product, etc. To calculate these values, companies use Balanced Scorecards (
BSC) that work by expanding on previously established indicators that prove, through time, if they approach the company’s proposed aims; that is, the business’s success. However, none of these tools on the
BSC market included intellectual capital management parameters, so the
InCaS method responded to this gap. Specifically, the aim of the methodology developed in the
InCaS project was to introduce the management of intellectual capital in the
Balanced Scorecards for
SMEs, so that, besides those elements that are already considered, knowledge management is included as a decisive factor in achieving the business´ success.