Originally published June 25, 2023
This is the 92nd article in the Profiles in Knowledge series featuring thought leaders in knowledge management. Göran and Johan Roos are brothers, originally from Sweden, who now live in England. They were co-founders of Intellectual Capital Services Ltd. (ICS), a London-based strategy consulting firm and think tank in the fields of innovation management, value measurement, strategy and management of intellectual capital, and strategic learning experiences.
Göran and Johan are pioneers of the intellectual capital movement along with Karl-Erik Sveiby, Leif Edvinsson, Thomas Stewart, and Nick Bontis. When I was writing profiles on Leif, Nick, and Georg von Krogh, I noticed that the names “G. Roos” and “J. Roos” appeared several times as co-authors. I wondered if they were related, so I asked ChatGPT. Here is the response I received:
Both Johan Roos and Göran Roos are recognized as experts in the field of intellectual capital. While they share the same last name, there is no widely available information to suggest that they are related to each other.
Johan Roos is a Swedish academic and researcher known for his work on the concept of intellectual capital and the development of the “Intellectual Capital Navigator.” He has made significant contributions to the field of management and has held various academic positions, including professorships at institutions like IMD Business School and Halmstad University.
Göran Roos, also from Sweden, is a renowned economist and management consultant specializing in the areas of innovation, technology, and intellectual capital. He has worked extensively with both private and public organizations, advising them on strategic management and innovation practices. Göran Roos is widely recognized for his expertise in the field of intellectual capital and has published several influential works on the subject.
While both individuals have contributed significantly to the field of intellectual capital, there is no readily available information suggesting a familial relationship between them.
Then I asked Bard and it provided this reply:
Johan and Göran Roos are not related by blood, but they are related by their work on intellectual capital. They are both Swedish organizational theorists and have co-authored several books and articles on the topic. In 1998, they co-authored the book Intellectual Capital: Navigating in the New Business Landscape, which is considered to be a seminal work on the topic.
Johan Roos is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Hult International Business School. Göran Roos is the Chairman of Intellectual Capital Services (ICS). They have both made significant contributions to the field of intellectual capital and their work has helped to raise awareness of the importance of this intangible asset.
But a Google search returned two results stating they are brothers:
- Valuing Knowledge: Is It Worth It? by David Skyrme: “The IC-IndexTM, developed by the Roos brothers and colleagues and now marketed by Intellectual Capital Services. Its unique characteristic is that it focuses on the change and flows of intellectual capital, even where it is difficult to ascribe absolute value.”
- The Human Value of the Enterprise: Valuing People as Assets — Monitoring, Measuring, Managing by Andrew Mayo: “Göran and Johan Roos are brothers.”
I then decided to try asking each of them directly through LinkedIn messages:
Johan
- Me: Johan, I am writing a profile in knowledge about you. I wonder if you are related to Göran Roos?
- Johan S Roos: Brother
Göran
- Me: Göran, are you and Johan brothers?
- Göran Roos: yes
The lesson learned: Generative chat tools can be helpful but are not a substitute for actual human interaction and going directly to the source whenever possible.
Göran Roos
Göran Roos is Chairman of the Board of The NeuroTech Institute in Adelaide, Australia. He is the Managing Director of Intellectual Capital Services Ltd, a technology and business futures think tank. Göran is based in Addington, England. His full name is Nils Göran Arne Roos.
He is Visiting Professor in Business Performance and Intangible Asset Management, Centre for Business Performance, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University and Visiting Professor at Australian Industrial Transformation Institute, Flinders University. Göran is a CSIRO fellow and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
Göran has also held academic appointments at Nanyang Technological University; University of Adelaide; University of Technology Sydney; Swinburne University of Technology; Warwick University; University of South Australia; Melbourne Business School, Mt. Eliza Centre for Executive Education, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and BI Norwegian Business School.
He is the author and co-author of over three hundred books, book chapters, papers and articles on Intellectual Capital, Innovation Management, Strategy and Industrial Policy, many of which have been recognized with awards. He has around 14,000 Google Scholar citations.
Göran has worked as a consultant in more than 50 countries and is one of the founders of modern intellectual capital science and a recognized world expert in this field as well as a major contributor to the thinking and practice in the areas of strategy and innovation management as well as industrial and innovation policy.
He is a member of these editorial boards:
- Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP)
- Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management (eJKM)
- International Journal of Strategic Change Management
- International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital
- Journal of Intellectual Capital
His specialties include strategy; innovation management; and industrial, innovation and research policy.
Background
Education
- University of South Australia — Doctor of Philosophy — PhD, Strategy
- Henley Business School — Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Management Consultancy, 1998
- INSEAD — Master of Business Administration — MBA, 1988–1989
- Chalmers University of Technology — Master’s degree, Engineering Physics, 1977–1982
Experience
- The NeuroTech Institute, Adelaide, Australia — Chairman of the Board, 2018 — Present
- Intellectual Capital Services (ICS) Ltd. — Co-Founder, 1995 — present
- University of Technology Sydney — Adjunct Professor, 2014–2018
- Advanced Manufacturing Council, Adelaide, Australia — Chairperson, 2012–2014
- VTT International — Chairman of the Board, 2010–2012
- Roos, von Krogh & Partners — Managing Director, 1995–1998
Profiles
Content
- Publications
- ResearchGate
- Google Scholar
- Semantic Scholar
- Academia.edu
- Typeset
- Orcid
- ICS Research
- Intellectual capital and knowledge management effectiveness with Bernard Marr, Oliver Gupta, and Stephen Pike
- Evaluating Intellectual Capital and measuring knowledge management effectiveness with Oliver Gupta and Stephen Pike
- Measuring the impact of knowledge management in companies with Stephen Pike
- Knowledge creation through national innovation systems with Lisa Boldt-Christmas and Stephen Pike
- Knowledge management, intellectual capital, structural holes, economic complexity and national prosperity
The Knowledge Toolbox: A review of the tools available to measure and manage intangible resources with Nick Bontis, Nicola Dragonetti, and Kristine Jacobsen
Articles by Others
A conversation by Jay Chatzkel
Henley: Open Innovation & Werewolves by Dave Snowden
Göran Roos now, intending to be controversial by challenging open innovation. Three types: outside-in (integrating external sources) Insider-out (bringing ideas to market) & coupled (both).
- Outside-In — tend to be low tech, highly modular, high knowledge intensity and act as knowledge brokers and/or creators
- Inside-out — tend to be research driven, multiply technology etc. (flipping through slides too quickly for me to absorb I am afraid but I suspect he is summarising a paper so you can probably find it)
Sources of external knowledge — suppliers and customers are the highest, Universities and Research Institutes are the lowest! Suggests this is because of discontinuities between timelines. Low technology customers get the highest return from understanding customers. High Tech, on the other hand, start to get returns by having many shallow relationships with many Universities but that takes resource (claims this from research). Generally better to go broader rather than deeper.
Open innovation means added costs and the external sources do not share the same context with cost implications. Engagement in open systems starts high, but then declines due to motivational and other issues. Tradeoff issues for provider do not match context of requester. No written contracts, what is foreground and background IP? Which legal system etc. etc. Some people are malicious (Victor is starting to look like an optimist in comparison!)
Why does it not pay? number of sources to be handled past three gets negative, past six you can’t handle it. Therefore limited by definition. Good point here, but there are better ways to handle that, will pick up in my presentation later (fragmentation, multi-source assessment, fitness landscapes)
Moved on to what should we do. Early stages of life cycle, then use a small number of key sources intensively. As the market matures etc then more and more actors have specialized knowledge, So you need to scan a wider number of search channels. Good advice, they are no silver bullets . Open innovation can not be a substitute for internal innovation.
Most useful item of knowledge — there is a supplier of silver bullets in the USA who will warrant their effectiveness against werewolves. Do a Google search on “silver bullet suppliers” to be really scared.
Podcasts
- The significance of intellectual capital
- Business Strategies Capturing Opportunities in Disruptive Times
Videos
Books
Managing Intellectual Capital in Practice with Stephen Pike and Lisa Boldt-Christmas
Intellectual Capital Management: A Strategic Perspective edited with Sharath Jutur
Intellectual Capital as a Management Tool: Essentials for Leaders and Managers with Stephen Pike
Knowledge Capital: How Knowledge-Based Enterprises Really Get Built by Jay Chatzkel — Chapter 5. Recipes for Knowledge-Based Value Creation
Johan Roos
Johan Roos is a Swedish organizational theorist, and Chief Academic Officer at Hult International Business School, known for his work on intellectual capital, co-invention of LEGO Serious Play™, and extensive writing on strategy and innovation. He is based in London, England.
His mission is driving academic excellence in a unique business school while contributing to the public debate about its global ecosystem. He is also an early investor in start-ups.
Johan’s research has focused on strategic and leadership processes in alliance formation, knowledge management, and strategy. He is the author or co-author of many articles, book chapters, and books as well as case studies, papers, and articles for practitioners. He has published in many prestigious journals, is a regular contributor to international academic conferences, and he serves as a peer reviewer for premier scholarly journals.
His specialties include intellectual capital, management innovation, Peter Drucker’s work, serious play, the human economy, and generative AI.
Background
Education
- Stockholm School of Economics — Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), International Business, 1986–1989
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) — Master of Science (MSc), Agriculture (Economics and Management), 1981–1985
Experience
- Hult International Business School, London — Chief Academic Officer & Professor, 2016 — Present
- Peter Drucker Society Europe, Austria — Senior Advisor, 2022 — Present
- Co-inventor of LEGO Serious Play, 1998 — Present
- Imagination Lab Foundation, Lausanne, Switzerland — Co-founder, 2000 — Present
- On the Agenda ApS, Copenhagen — Co-Founder, 2014–2019 (Consulting service founded on the guiding principles summarized in the book Bridging the Gender Gap)
- Jönköping International Business School (JiBS), Jönköping, Sweden — Dean, Managing Director & Professor, 2012–2015
- Copenhagen Business School — President, 2009–2011
- Stockholm School of Economics — Dean of MBA Programs & Bo Rydin and SCA Professor of Strategy, 2007–2009
- Executive Discovery LLC — Co-Founder, 1998–2003
- IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland — Professor of General Management and Strategy, 1995–2000
- Intellectual Capital Services (ICS) Ltd. — Co-Founder, 1995–1999 (Consulting company specializing in measuring intellectual capital in corporations)
- BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo — Associate Professor of Strategy, 1990–1994 (includes Research Fellow position at the Norwegian Institute for Marketing, a non-profit research foundation affiliated with BI, pioneering customer satisfaction research and tools in collaboration with University of Michigan)
- The Wharton School — Research Associate, William H. Wurster Center for Multinational Management, 1988–1990
Profiles
Content
- Hult
- LinkedIn Articles
- LinkedIn Posts
- LinkedIn Documents
- Publications
- ResearchGate
- Google Scholar
- Semantic Scholar
- Stockholm School of Economics
- Global Peter Drucker Forum Blog
- Orcid
- Research.com
- An Essay on Corporate Epistemology with Georg von Krogh and Ken Slocum
- From Fitness Landscapes to Knowledge Landscapes with David Oliver
- Driving Organizational Readiness for Change through Strategic Workshops with Viktor Nilsson
- A perspective on knowledge, competence and strategy with Georg von Krogh
- Future Research into Knowledge Management with Markus Venzin and Georg von Krogh
Podcast
Videos
Events That Changed Management Education
Business Education Is ‘Glocal’
Books
Disrupting Innovation Through Collaborative Competitions: Extreme Breakthroughs Solving Any Challenge Faster Better Smarter with Sigvald Harryson
Organizational Epistemology with Georg von Krogh
Striking a Balance: Complexity and Knowledge Landscapes with David Oliver
Bridging the Gender Gap: Seven Principles for Achieving Gender Balance with Lynn Roseberry
The Next Common Sense: Mastering Corporate Complexity Through Coherence with Michael Lissack
Innovating Strategy Processes edited with by Steven Floyd, Claus Jacobs, and Franz Kellermanns
Knowing in Firms: Understanding, Managing and Measuring Knowledge edited with Georg von Krogh and Dirk Kleine
Managing Knowledge: Perspectives on Cooperation and Competition edited with Georg von Krogh
Implementing Strategic Processes: Change, Learning and Cooperation edited with Peter Lorange, Bala Chakravarty, and Andrew Van de Ven
Göran and Johan: Joint Publications
Articles
- Valuing intellectual capital — Financial Times, Mastering Management Journal
- A 2nd Generation of Intellectual Capital Practices — Financial Times, Mastering Management Journal
- Intellectual performance: exploring an intellectual capital system in small companies — Knowledge in Action Conference
Measuring Your Company’s Intellectual Performance
Books
Strategi: en innføring (Strategy: an introduction), 7th edition with Georg von Krogh
Intellectual Capital: Navigating in the New Business Landscape with Nicola Carlo Dragonetti and Leif Edvinsson
Article about this book
The Human Value of the Enterprise: Valuing People as Assets — Monitoring, Measuring, Managing by Andrew Mayo
Göran and Johan Roos are brothers, one a consultant and the other a professor at IMD in Lausanne. They have worked extensively in advising companies on intellectual capital management and developed a measuring tool called the IC-index. They distinguish between different generations of intellectual capital thinking:
- First generation: concerned with awareness, identifying indicators and developing some kind of report
- Second generation: concerned with a focus on changes and flows between different kinds of intellectual capital; develops indices and compares them with market value.
Roos, Roos, Edvinsson, and Dragonetti divide human capital as follows:
- Competence. These authors define competence as being essentially about knowledge and skills, and by knowledge they mean specifically the “technical or academic knowledge of things,” related to education, something that “has to be taught.” Skills they see as its practical counterpart. This approach is reflected in many of the measures used by the pioneering Scandinavian companies.
- Attitude. This, say Roos et al., depends mostly on personality traits and can be changed very little. It is influenced by “motivation, behavior and conduct.” The Human Capital Monitor argues that these are strongly dependent on the environment in which people work.
- Intellectual agility. This is used to cover innovation, flexibility, and adaptability — traits seen at a group or organizational level as much as in individuals.
IC-Index
We referred earlier to Johan and Göran Roos and their first and second generations of intellectual capital. They concluded that because it was so difficult to measure intellectual capital itself, the focus should be on measuring changes. To this end they developed a tool called the IC-Index.
Their distinguishing concept is that it is the flows between components of intellectual capital and financial capital that matter. As they put it: “Balance sheets are still photographs. What drives an organization is the movie — each frame different from its predecessor. It’s a dynamic where different kinds of capital growth feed into each other.” What they call second-generation IC, as opposed to the more simplistic formula of the first generation, is about carefully selected measures and the interaction between them. Roos and Roos recognize that financial and intellectual capital must be balanced — one is consumed to maintain the other.
They therefore break down the overall intellectual capital into subsections, using the categories of human, customers and relationships, processes and infrastructure, and renewal and innovation. For each category a small set of indicators is carefully chosen. These indicators are each weighted to form a category index, and the category indices are themselves weighted to form an overall IC-Index.
This approach is customized based on an organization’s specific strategies, and the factors that will make or break each key strategy. Indicators that will track these factors are then grouped in the four categories to make the indices.
