SA brands flat for 20 years

VALUE: LOSS IN DATA, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

- Ciaran Ryan

South Africa's value of intangible assets has remained more or less flat since 2005 - and that reveals a trove of information about how we value assets such as software, data, intellectual property and brands.

This runs counter to trends in developed markets such as the US and even emerging markets such as China and India, says Daan Steenkamp, economist and CEO at Codera Analytics.

“We need to start asking why SA companies are failing to accumulate intellectual property and investing in data assets as in many other countries,” says Steenkamp.

This is no small matter.

Research by McKinsey shows that fast-growing companies invest 2.6 times more in intangibles than low-growth companies. There's also been a shift from investment in tangible assets, such as buildings and machinery, to intangibles.

“Rising investment in intangibles has been linked with increasing total factor productivity of entire economies,” says McKinsey.