Question

Top 3 tangible assets

• Equipment used for manufacturing
• Land and Building
• Computer software and hardware for design

Top 3 intangible assets

• Patents and Trademarks
• Brand recognition
• Capable employees

Top 3 capabilities

• Design and develop attractive footwears
• High responsiveness against consumer preference
• Producing high-quality products consistently

1. Which of these resources do you believe to be most important? Why?
2. What of these resources do you believe is least important? Why?

Answer 1

I believe all the above mentioned resources are very important to the firm.Moreover, all the resources are complementary rather than being competitive as one resource is because of other Eg: Design and develop attractive footwears can be because of the combination of capable employee, computer software and equipment for manufacturing.

However, if I have still make a distinction and chose the most important resource than I will go will with high responsiveness against consumer preference. This is because if one has high level of responsiveness one will always be ahead of its competitor and will always reap the benefit of being the pioneer in any activity. Obviously this would not be possible without having capable employee doing market research. This will also enable to have a great brand recognition and also will lead to own patents and trademark further consolidating its position in the market.

I have to make the difficult choice of choosing the least important resource than it would be land and building. This may sound silly but in this day and age land is using its importance as being the most important asset anyone can have. I am not implying it is not important anymore but if a company loses its land and building without losing any of its other resources than they can always buy a new piece of land or building or lease it or rent, the options are many. Obviously a company cannot survive without occupying a land or building but I am thinking in terms of replaceability. It is very difficult to replace any of the capabilities, intangible assets a company acquires over a period of time. Only tangible assets are something which can be replaced without adversely affecting the performance of the company. So I can club Equipment and computer hardware as well in terms of not being the most important resource a company can have.