Baker's New Book is Out: SmartPros Interviews Ron on Mind Over Matter

My latest book in the Intellectual Capitalism Series is now out.

Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth is third book in the Series, which are all centered around VeraSage's New Practice equation:

Profitability = Intellectual Capital x Effectiveness x Price

Book one in the series, Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value, explores the Price component in the above equation, while the second book, Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators, posits that effectiveness is far more important in PKFs than mere efficiency. It also attacks the McKinsey maxim of "What you can measure you can manage" as spurious.

Mind Over Matter deals with perhaps the most difficult aspect of the above equation: Intellectual Capital. I say that because it was, by far, the most difficult book I've written to date. How do we know what we know? How do we capture it so we can leverage it into the future to create wealth? How do we know when it becomes obsolete? These questions, and more, are all dealt with, from a economic, sociological, and historical perspective.

As always, I'm indebted to many people who contributed to this work. Mostly, my colleagues at VeraSage who advance my knowledge day-by-day. Special thanks to Dan Morris and Paul O'Byrne for allowing me to include essays in the book on how their firms are leveraging IC. Dan explains his firm's Concierge Service Model, while Paul describes OBK's Knowledge Bank, use of After Action Reviews, and the GOBS MBA program. These are all incredibly innovative strategies to leverage IC, create a competitive differentiation, and command premium prices.

I'd also like to thank Niquette Kelcher of SmartPros for conducting this latest interview. Niquette has always been an enormous supporter of VeraSage's work, always taking the time to read my last three books in manuscript form while providing valuable feedback.

As always, I welcome any and all feedback on any of my books. I hope you find this latest one worthy.