“Follow the money” is a popular phrase in business and government. But where is the money? According to a study by Ocean Tomo, the share of intangible assets as a percentage of S&P 500 market value increased from 68% to 90% from 1995 to 2020. The industrial revolutions have transformed the economy from agriculture to manufacturing and now to a service, knowledge and increasingly digital one, leading to the rising importance of intangible assets. Intangible assets include intellectual property (IP) like copyright, patents and trademarks, and other non-IP assets like trade secrets and goodwill.
Written by Mr Tan Chor Meng, Senior Director at Wiley. The article was first published on Forbes.
