CPE investment valuation program.

• Author: Royster, S. Richard
• Position: Continuing professional education

In a professional service business, people are the product and can be the single greatest asset. As in all other businesses, the quality of the product is an important factor in its success. Knowledge or intellectual capital is a valuable commodity that, if used properly, may exceed the value of tangible forms of capital; thus, managing that knowledge is fast becoming a valuable part of professional service businesses. Knowledge management concentrates on building knowledge infrastructures, organizing knowledge cultures, getting a return on investment dollars and providing quantifiable measures of added value.

Experts have predicted that employee knowledge will be the most important factor driving business profitability in the next century. Intangible resources (such as company reputation and employee know-how) are viewed as being increasingly critical to future organizational success.

Quality CPE

In the knowledge economy today, the quality of thinking is pivotal to the success of self-directed teams' productivity improvement and quality-based initiatives (i.e., the value-added difference in an organization's performance). To achieve such benefits, professional service businesses should not only ensure that their employees meet continuing professional education (CPE) requirements to maintain their professional credentials, but also must manage the investment in CPE to maximize their organizations' brainpower.

If the quality of CPE makes a difference, what can be done to enhance the effective use of the collective intelligence? How can CPE (which is invisible and intangible) be made visible and be leveraged?

In a blinding glimpse of the obvious, some firms recognize that quality CPE is at the root of every worthwhile accomplishment. The problem is how to measure the benefit derived from the investment in CPE and how to develop a system for improving its effective use.

The annual investment in intellectual capital has increased over the past few years, due to a number of factors, many of which may be directly related to a firm's strategic plans. However, that investment (viewed as a necessity in outpacing the...