In September 2016, the WICI Intangibles Reporting Framework was published after a public consultation process.
The suggested framework follows the WICI vision for “corporate reporting that integrates the communication of narrative and quantified information on how organizations create value over the short, medium and long term through the creation, management, combination and utilization of intangibles.” This vision is compatible with the IAC mission to support organizations on improving transparency on intangible assets, relate the current status quo to strategic requirements and to the business model in order to optimize value creation.
In chapter 3, the WICI framework suggests the following set of principles:
- materiality,
- connectivity,
- conciseness,
- comparability and
- future orientation
These principles are perfectly in line with the quality requirements of “Intellectual Capital Reporting – made in Germany” (Bornemann and Reinhardt, 2016). Our approach fully supports the WICI ideas of connecting narrative explanations with quantitative data represented as indicators or KPI. The value creation story is provided by a system analysis that visualizes loops between selected drivers of intellectual capital (Human Capital, Structural Capital and Relations). Last but not least, we agree with the reference to the management philosophy as the “raison d´etre” of the organization, as this is the source of regularly refined strategies and the value set of employees which ultimately constitutes the organizational culture.
A set of case studies collected during the last 10 years is available in our second edition of Handbuch Wissensbilanz available soon.