Barilla conference: “Intellectual and Human Capital – The Accounting of Innovation“, at the Barilla LAB Auditorium, Parma, Italy
Barilla, the Italian Pasta market leader, organised an international conference on “Intellectual and Human Capital – The Accounting of Innovation” on April 19, 2007, that brought together for the first time managers from the holding and from all of Barilla’s operations and business units (including business units/brands like Barilla, Gran Milano, Kamps, Harry’s) with Bob Singer, CEO of Barilla Holding, and with Guido Barilla and Paolo Barilla from the owner family in the Barilla LAB in Parma, Italy. The intention was to inspire the thinking of key people in Barilla before they start to work on the company’s strategy for the next 10-15 years.
The speakers and Bob Singer on the panel
"A deep change in the way to think about companies and business is in act. A cultural revolution is hinding behind concepts like “knowledge economy” and “learning organization”, behind theories as “behavioural econcomics” and “rational expectations”. As well as the new “International Accounting Standards”.
This revolution represents the passage from the traditional accounting of “tangibles” to the idea that the fundamental asset of a company are the “intangibles”. The value of a company is its growth potential, and its future is in its innovation ability. In the globalised world. Physical and financial assets inevitably become commodities in a short time. Therefore business growth is today primarily driven by intellectual assets: idea, brainpower and creativity. In a knowledge based economy, the human variable is no longer in independent because it is necessary to evaluate the “intelligence” of a company as innovation power. This conception inderlines the fact that the future is more important than the past, and it is overturning the accounting and reporting activities. We can account inert material, but can we account the “intelligence” of a company and its potential? Can we account people and innovation?
The objectives of this conference are to further investigate this topic and to examine possible solutions adopted by some foreign companies and institutions.” (quoted from the conference announcement on the Barilla Intranet)
The speakers at the conference included:
- Leif Edvinsson, former and the world’s first Corporate Director of Intellectual Capital at Skandia (Sweden)
- Karl-Heinz Leitner from the Austrian Research Center in Seibersdorf, Austria, the first organisation in the German speaking countries that published an Intellectual Capital Report
- Juergen H. Daum, Management thinker and adviser, Chief Solution Architect at SAP, and President founder of the International Institute of Enterprise – Heidelberg
- Raoul Nacamulli, professor of Organization, Theory and Management at the University Mailan-Bicocca (Italy) and Director of FOR
- Luciano Graziotti, Director HR and Organizational Development of Brembo (Italy), the world market leader in high performance brakes
In the panel discussion at the end of the conference Robert Singer, CEO of Barilla Holding, and Paolo Martinez, responsible for social innovation methodologies at the Firenze Technologia, the special agency of Florence Chamber of Commerdce, joined the speakers to discuss possible consequences/results of the content of the conference for Barilla.
Juergen H. Daum held a presentation with the title “Supporting the High Performance Organisation through an IC perspective: Case Studies and Conclusions for General Management, HCM, and Finance.”
Download Juergen H. Daum’s presentation
Download the conference programme
Closing remarks from Guido Barilla
Additional resources about the conference topic:
Article: "Intangible Assets-Based Enterprise Management – A Practical Approach (2005)"
Interview with Juergen H. Daum on “intangible assets”
Link to Juergen H. Daum’s website about his book “Intangible Assets and Value Creation
