A Learning Journey

Mary AdamsSmarter-Companies Inc.

1984-99High risk lending was a great introduction to strategy, management and finance

2004 trekking

1999

2004 09Lots of articles

Trek’s work with private companies led to a role in launching a new member-based organization…

Smarter-Companies Inc.

We also became aware of intangible capital

Source: Ocean Tomo

Intangibles information gap

Intangible book value

Tangible book value

Began a parallel trek…

• Started a website called IC Knowledge Center•Added three new references a month (link to an article,

book)• Sent out a newsletter saying “here’s what’s new at the

ICKC”• Later morphed into a blog• In 2010, became a community•Also created a personal blog…

Once we wrote this article, we knew it had

to be a book—even before it won an

award:)

Article was the outline for the book…

Book became a product…

Product and community became a company…

We train ICountants to use our products …

Today

• Smarter-Companies was launched in January, 2013•We have 550+ members•We have licensees on five continents•We’ve trained 20 ICountants•We’re creating a movement for Measures that Matter

…and it all started with a little article