Intangible Assets
Baruch Lev argues that “intangible assets” — ranging from a skilled workforce to patents to know-how — account for more than 1/2 of the market capitalization of America’s public companies. Accenture calculates that intangible assets have shot up from 20% of the value of companies in the S&P 500 in 1980 to around 70% today.
McKinsey has divided American jobs into three categories: “transformational” (extracting raw materials or converting them into finished goods), “transactional” (interactions that can easily be scripted or automated) and “tacit” (complex interactions requiring a high level of judgment). The company argues that over the past 6 years the number of American jobs that emphasise “tacit interactions” has grown two and a half times as fast as the number of transactional jobs and 3 times as fast as employment in general. These jobs now make up some 40% of the American labor market and account for 70% of the jobs created since 1998.
“The battle for brainpower,” The Economist