Quantifying the Intangible: An Engineer's Perspective

Culture can be accurately categorized as an intangible asset of a company. But intangibles can often have real world effects.

The Idea

The total output of your company is the total work of all individuals, working by themselves, multiplied by a coefficient that is a function of your culture. This coefficient can be thought of as a force multiplier.

The Proof

• Let V be the average amount of work each of your employees is capable of producing over a given time period
• Let K be the total number of employees you have
• Let W be V * K, or the total amount of work all of your employees are capable of producing in a given time period if they were all working separately
• Let A be synergy, or the ability for the total to be greater than the sum of the parts
• Therefore, let us define the real output of your company, W’, where W’ = A * W
• Let us further say that A is a function of the sum of some variables f(X + Y + Z), i.e. whether your employees are working at the same site, their command of the language they use to communicate, employees’ average happiness, etc.
• Let us denote the sum of these variables C, for culture.
• Through substitution, we see that W’ = f(C) * W

The Deduction

Intangible attributes of your company can affect how many cars your plant workers are capable of producing, how quickly your construction team puts up a a house, or how much time your engineering team needs to deploy new software.
Your company’s culture will have an impact on these; how big is debatable, but it’ll have a tangible effect. Thus the intangible is made tangible.

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