Wealth and growth in today's economies are driven primarily by intangible assets. Physical and financial assets are rapidly becoming commodities, yielding at best a competitive return on investment. Abnormal profits, dominant market position and even temporary monopolies are most effectively achieved by the sound deployment of intangible assets. The aim of this book is to bring together the best research and thinking in this exciting and rapidly emerging area.

We live in a world of measurements. Measurements, be they of length, speed, weight, temperature, intelligence, income, endurance, greed, gross domestic product, quality of life, unemployment or skill at a job, are all numerical manifestations of the extent of some underlying attribute. They reflect the reality around us - length and weight provide examples of systems that represent clear physical attributes. At the same time, measurements also define the reality around us - psychometric tests and price inflation constitute both the definitions and the procedures for measuring these concepts....