by Ronald J. Baker
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Praise for Mind Over Matter Why Intellectual capital is tHe Chief Source of Wealth
"Ron Baker has written another great book on the thoughts and theories on intellectual capital.As usual, he has an awesome depth of content, knowledge, and thought. A great read."
--Reed Holden, founder, Holden Advisors Corp., www.holdenadvisors.com, and coauthor, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing and Pricing with Confidence: 10 Ways to Stop Leaving Money on the Table
"At a time when the virtues that made America great--individualism, hard work, and free trade--are openly debated by well-meaning politicians, Ron Baker gives us Mind Over Matter. It is a story detailing the triumph of human spirit, imagination, and creativity. Ron tells us what the 'knowledge economy' really means. He gives a prescription for transforming human and intellectual capital into the foundation for sustainable prosperity. Mind Over Matter is a provocative book deserving of a thoughtful read. It is a timeless message to be treasured for generations."
--Robert G. Cross, Chairman and CEO, Revenue Analytics, Inc., www.revenueanalytics.com
"Ron Baker is an absolute master at challenging the 'physical fallacy,' e.g., the basis on which we assign value to businesses by focusing on tangible rather than intangible assets. This book builds on his previous books and helps the reader understand how critical intellectual capital is to the key to success in the twenty-first century. Ron pulls from the greatest business thinkers and economists,?from Drucker to Karl Sveiby as well as current company success stories to fund his rich gold mine of proof. The biggest benefit of the book is to change the paradigm of those who are the passive keepers of the 'books.' This is a must-read for anybody who wants to flourish in the age of intellectual capital."
--Sheila Kessler, PhD, President, Competitive Edge, www.CompetitiveEdge.com
"This book helps us understand some of the origins and sources that have led Ron Baker to the many contributions he has made to our understanding of good practice in running professional businesses."
--David Maister, author and leading consultant to professional firmswww.davidmaister.com
"Reading Ron Baker's book was the only delightful incident that robbed my sleep on the flight to Frankfurt today. It was sheer pleasure--I must have entertained or annoyed fellow passengers with repeated nodding and several exclamations. Baker has a terrific style that captures my mind while he entertains and educates by showing lines of connection between authors, incidents, and theories that I have never seen before. He hardly uses the 'You have to do this and that' approach, which I despise in most business books. I sum it up in two words: outstanding stuff!"
--Friedrich Blase, Kerma Partners, www.kermapartners.com
"This is a wonderful read for anyone who wants to explore the power of constructive thinking. In Mind Over Matter, Ron examines the power of creative thought over the conventional wisdom that you must make a tangible product for wealth to be created. The opening chapter sets a wonderful stage for the book, which develops the power of the new business equation and the underlying theory of the various types of intellectual capital. This is a must-read book for every business leader."
--Peter Byers, Chartered Accountant, Byers & Co. Ltd, New Zealand
"Peter Drucker coined the term knowledge worker a half century ago. We are all still only beginning to fully comprehend the implications. In Mind Over Matter, Ron Baker has switched on a beacon for us to follow. If we have the courage to embrace the concepts Ron posits, perhaps it will be less than another half century before we begin to reap the rewards as individuals and as a society."
--Ed Kless, Senior Director, Partner Development and Recruitment, Sage Software
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People as the real source of value, 2008-07-30
This is an important book on an important topic - the creation of value and wealth by people working together in services relationships. It's hard to tell from the title, but this is, among other things, a one-volume economics education. Baker builds on extensive quotes from a who's who of economic and business literature, including a satiric essay on balance of trade fallacies by Frederic Bastiat, and the full text of a prescient speech Ronald Reagan in Moscow in 1988. The book is written in an approachable first-person style, as befits an author who seems to be a bit of a cult hero in the world of accounting ... yes, accounting!
Don't let the focus on economics and accounting throw you off. This is a business book with an edgy and timely message. Baker provides a harsh critique of current accounting practices as lacking theory, in the sense of ability to explain, predict and prescribe. He describes current accounting practices as the "three blind mice" of the balance sheet, the income statement, and cash flow that can only record value after the fact, and do not properly address the value of intellectual capital. He is also a critic of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which he maintains has done more harm than good. He is not alone in this evaluation, (see The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle: What We've Learned; How to Fix It (Aei Liability Studies) ) but he goes beyond other critics by proposing positive alternatives to costly and restrictive regulations.
This book provides key intellectual underpinning for Baker's longstanding quest to do away with such industrial vestiges as billable hours, timesheets, cost-plus pricing. His VeraSage Institute is a think tank for improving the position and practices of professional service firms. Specifically, Baker and VeraSage focus on knowledge workers in the truest sense of the term as people who "own the means of production, and apply knowledge to knowledge to create value".
Baker maintains that people should not be regarded as an unfortunate cost, but rather seen as volunteers, who can walk away from any employer, simply to invest their personal intellectual capital elsewhere. He sees knowledge as a nonrival asset, meaning that its value to one person is not reduced when it is possessed by others. Perhaps at a later date he will return to an analysis of the comparative value of fresh knowledge that provides advantages vis a vis competitive rivals.
Baker insists that knowledge work must be better monetized, beyond the stultifying practice of simply measuring hours spent on the job. As precedent for alternative monetization, he cites the frequent flyer programs of airlines that constitute a massive alternative currency. "Money is not wealth per se, it is merely how members of a society move it around ... the wealth of nations resides in consumer well-being, not profits." This is focus on well-being is supported by long-wave economic theorist Carlota Perez (see Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages ), who believes that the frenzied focus on technology for its own sake is giving way to real wealth creation based on "attention to collective well-being."
Baker points out that entrained thinking can be a barrier to achieving these beneficial effects. He decries the use of military and sports analogies that assume business is a form of warfare. He quotes from Pfeffer and Sutton ( Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management ) to stress that a focus on competition over cooperation is a hallmark of the Michael Porter school of strategic thinking. A good antidote to this perspective is to be found in the value net notion of Cinzia Parolini ( The Value Net: A Tool for Competitive Strategy ) that looks at value-creating nodes and relationships that transcend traditional firm and industry boundaries.
This is a timely message for executives, within and beyond the professional services industry. Supporting and capturing the value of creative and problem-solving communities can unleash a new wave of wealth creation, and Ron Baker provides needed guidance for how to achieve this.
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