Thanks colleague for the information, I will make the invitation to my colleagues.

Thank you very much Igor!

I think it is a good idea to focus attention on the issue of "managing intellectual capital" (or MIC, for convenience). I have some experiences (sic) of MIC, as I spent some twenty years in industry before becoming what I would call myself as a "late academic". In my view when a merger & acquisition occurs, intellectual capital (IC) is often lost, in the headlong rush to create what ivory tower academics and managers euphemistically call “synergy” or “synergies”. Lay-offs invariably follow, to cut costs and to become “more efficient” and what occurs is that the baby is thrown out with the bath-water. Human intellectual capital (i.e., the knowledge, both documented and much of it undocumented, experiences few of which are documented or transferred and many only known to the person(s) concerned) is really lost, perhaps for all time. Did not someone point out, and correctly, to the fact that IC often walks out after a day’s work?

I used to work for an MNC, famous for many innovations. Following the M&A, lots of people lost their jobs, amongst who were many brilliant engineers and technologists. Many ideas and processes were lost, some still in use and some parked and unused waiting for better days or appropriate times to come by, and patents forgotten. It goes without saying, I too voluntarily left for a life outside the corporate environment, though I could have stayed, had I wanted to. Not far from where I live is a pharmaceuticals company which was acquired in an M&A exercise. Many scientists lost their jobs. Who benefits? Not the industry, not the country and certainly not the laid-off scientists. Academics and researchers do not pay attention to the problems of MIC and IC in particular. So, I hope your mini-conference is timely and does pay attention to IC and MIC. As for corporate reputation, I am not sure that corporate reputation ever comes into the equation when MIC or IC is considered. I  hope to  hear from others about instances where in considering MIC, corporate reputation gets a mention.

Hi Phil,

Your point of view from your experience is really interesting and I agree with you that the lost of intellectual capital that companies suffer with mergers and acquisitions is shocking. In Spain, we are losing important researchers and scientists but because of the economic situation.

In any case, the conference I mentioned above is about Intellectual Capital (IC) in general. The topics that are going to be treated are Human capital management, IC and the economy, IC management and practical solutions, Best practices in managing IC..., so your contribution in any of these themes may be great.

As part of the conference, there are parallel mini tracks that are focused on specific topics that relates IC with specific aspects such as information and communication technologies, information that can be obtain from data, the impact of dominant logic, or the used of information by smart cities.

Regarding corporate reputation, stakeholders are the key that relate it to IC. Corporate reputation is a general perception that different stakeholders (mainly employees and customers) have about a company. IC is generated inside the organization so the way the IC is managing may affect the perception that the employees (and why not customers) have about the company, having even an influence on the organizational performance. This is a booming area and for that reason we looked for ideas and contributions to highlight the importance of IC which make that companies will be aware of the importance of IC when it is related to other aspects of the company.

Please refer to,

Information Management Model for Intellectual Capital of HEIs in Oman: Theoretical Quantitative Approach and Practical Results. J. of Information and Knowledge Management, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.1-38. (World Scientific).

https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219649218500053?src=recsys&journalCode=jikm