Intellectual Property

Leveraging Intellectual Capital by Daniel Burrus ©2004 - 2006 All Rights Reserved

Working with executives at the Mayo Clinic in the early '90s, I asked them to do what I ask many of my clients to do today - and that is to look at what I call the Visible Future®. At that time, this was not something they wanted to do. Why? Because to them it was depressing. Indeed, their visible future included decreasing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and increasing losses in their emergency rooms. So my suggestion to them was this: "Why don't you sell your knowledge?"

The result was a CD which could be used by people any time, day or night, to determine, for example, whether their child's rash and fever required a trip to the emergency room or could be treated with aspirin. The Mayo Clinic put a $100 price tag on the product, and in the first year it sold 670,000 copies.

A side benefit was that, by expanding their services to offer a knowledge-based product, they began to develop a new and powerful 21st century brand in the marketplace. They not only created new value and new revenue, but with the subsequent advent of the Internet, their name recognition became international.

Are you leveraging the intellectual capital in your organization?

About The Author
Daniel Burrus is considered one of the world's leading technology forecasters and strategists, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research Associates, Inc., a research and consulting firm that specializes in global innovations in science and technology, their creative application, and future impact. Over the past two decades, he has established a worldwide reputation for his exceptional record of accurately predicting the future of technological change and its direct impact on the business world. He is a strategic advisor to executives from many Fortune 500 companies, helping them to develop successful competitive strategies based on the creative application of leading-edge technologies. He publishes the popular monthly Technotrends Newsletter®, now in its twenty-second year of publication, and is the author of six books, including the highly acclaimed Technotrends, which has been translated into over a dozen languages. He has been the featured subject of a PBS television special and has appeared on programs such as Larry King, CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg, and is quoted in a variety of publications, including USA Today, Fortune, and Forbes. The New York Times has referred to him as one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker. He is a highly successful entrepreneur who has founded and managed five businesses, two of which were national leaders in the United States in the first year.


©Burrus Research Associates, Inc.
557 Cottonwood Ave., Suite #106
P.O. Box 47
Hartland, WI 53029-0047
Phone: 262-367-0949, Fax: 262-367-7163