CATALYST: Putting brand value on balance sheets.

from BUSINESS LINE, November 27, 2008 At a Brand Finance conference held in Mumbai last week, Nabankur Gupta, who is on the board of directors of Raymond, made a case for putting brand value on balance sheets. Brands, more than any other asset, have governed the fortunes of an organisation, and Indian companies need to get cracking and give them the importance they deserve, he said. Excerpts from his keynote address at the forum: While a brand in its simplest form is a noun, it represents many more intangible aspects of a product or service. It has both an identity and a personality. There is no other element within the business process which is so akin to human behaviour.

Other tangible assets of an organisation such as plants and machinery, stocks and debtors, even technology and design, are quite simple to value and audit. Hence they have remained over the decades the fundamentals of books of accounts and valuations of corporations. New global accounting standards (IFRS) are now demanding incorporation of brand values in the balance …