Value in View: What Defines Tomorrow's Globally Competitive Firm?
Spot where value is being created and how the most forward-looking firms are capturing it.
Five years ago, the landscape in many high-growth markets looked markedly different. It pays to update our worldview on how value is created and captured in these markets.
Value was tied up in legacy models - goods moved slowly through dense chains of intermediaries, small enterprises lacked global visibility, and most economic activity was locked into low-margin, low-scale industries. Finance was unevenly distributed. Trust operated through informal networks. The raw ingredients for global success existed, yet the ability to turn local capability into cross-border commercial gain was constrained. Too often, value was extracted, not built.
Today, that’s changing. Quickly.
Following the Value: Where the Shift Is Happening
While parts of the world contract, commercially astute global leaders are looking to where value creation is evolving and where new models of value capture are gaining ground.
Recent data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) confirms this shift. In 2024, the global value of corporate intangible assets hit a record US$80 trillion, a 28 per cent increase from the previous year, and a new high above the 2021 peak.
Intangibles as Engines
What’s striking is the composition of that growth. Intangibles, including IP, data, software, design, brand equity, and know-how, are now central to how economies generate innovation and corporate value. They scale faster. Travel further. Compound through networks. And allow both firms and countries to bypass traditional, capital-heavy development paths.
From 2008 to 2023, global investment in intangible assets grew three times faster than tangible asset investment. That difference is structural. And it shows the difference between those growing by producing more, and those growing by knowing more.
Who’s Advancing? A New League of Intangible Leaders
India is currently the only middle-income nation among the world’s top 10 in intangible asset intensity. Yet others, including Indonesia (11th), Thailand (20th), Brazil (21st), and Morocco (25th), have risen into the global top 25. These movements are signals of progress. And they’re signs of who’s building future leverage.
The USA tops the list at first position, and Australia, where I am currently based, is ranked 16th globally.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). (2025). The Value of Intangible Assets of Corporations. Global Innovation Index Blog. Retrieved from https://www.wipo.int/en/web/global-innovation-index/w/blogs/2025/the-value-of-intangible-assets-of-corporations
From Activity to Advantage
The world is shifting. New winners and losers are emerging. What holds true: value is captured by those who know how to create it.
For globally minded business leaders assessing market potential or evaluating competitive threats, the question is:
Where is value being created and how is it being captured?
It’s no longer sufficient to map factories or freight routes. The signals now lie elsewhere: in AI-led business models, licensing models, IP exports, and cross-border ecosystem plays.
Today’s advantage comes from how firms productise their expertise, monetise their relationships, and scale ideas into recurring, borderless income.
That’s the shift defining tomorrow’s globally competitive firm.
Market Assessment: The Value Lens
When assessing a market, it pays to examine how leverage is being used - not just to operate locally, however to create and capture value at scale. The most forward-looking firms aren’t confined to physical exports; they’re building business models that move across borders with speed and resilience.
Look for signals such as:
Krantz, Sophie. (2025). Leverage Areas for Diversified Global Income. Adapted and developed from trade, innovation, and intangible asset frameworks.
Seeing More. Moving Smarter.
As we move through high-growth markets, this lens sharpens our view. It pays to look closely at how local firms are monetising ideas, relationships, and systems, especially in ways that scale beyond borders.
By deliberately seeking out these shifts, we focus on where value is being created, not where it’s contracting.
Because when we see more, we can move smarter.
Where in the world is value being created and captured in ways that signal your biggest commercial opportunity, and your biggest risk?
What If? A Global Recession Lands as You Do
You land in a new fast-moving city. The airport Wi-Fi connects. Your phone lights up.
Upon Arrival: Systematising Serendipity
Until recently, reaching beyond our inner circles and familiar networks, and turning them into commercial outcomes, took time, effort and, often, a degree of chance. That’s shifting. And for those building across borders, it matters.
The Departure Lounge
Imagine: you’re in an international departure lounge with a blank boarding pass in hand.