Touchy-feely
Accountants want to start measuring intangible assets and new economy “value drivers”. They are unlikely to be any good at it
SHOULD “female potential” be rewarded with a place in companies' annual reports? Or how about the share of the staff who are younger than 40 and possess a college degree? These criteria, and many more like them, are to be found in supplements to past annual reports from Skandia, a Swedish financial group. Telling the world about its female managers and the average age of its workforce, the company thought, would attest to its wealth of “intellectual capital”.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Touchy-feely”
From the May 19th 2001 edition
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