The Opagio 12
Definition
The Opagio 12 is Opagio's framework of twelve intangible value drivers that determine a company's hidden enterprise value: Brand & Reputation, Customer Capital, Technology & Innovation, Data & Intelligence, Network Effects & Platforms, Human Capital, Organisational Capital, Ecosystem & Partnerships, Content & IP, Regulatory & Compliance, Switching Costs & Lock-In, and Culture & Ways of Working. Because roughly nine-tenths of a modern private company's value sits in intangible assets, and most of it never appears on the balance sheet, a buyer effectively prices a business through these drivers whether they name them or not. The Opagio 12 gives owners and acquirers a single, consistent lens for identifying, assessing and valuing that intangible value — the basis of the Opagio Value Drivers Register™ produced inside Opagio Intangibles.
Complementary Terms
Concepts that frequently appear alongside The Opagio 12 in practice.
The formal, auditable record of the intangible assets a business owns, with each asset individually named, described and classified against the Opagio 12 intangible value drivers. It is the output of Guided Asset Discovery, the first step of The Opagio Method, and it exists because the accounting standards leave most intangible value undocumented: IAS 38 and FRS 102 Section 18 prohibit recognising internally generated intangibles on the balance sheet, so brand, software, customer relationships, data and know-how built in-house appear nowhere in the filed accounts.
The commercial value derived from consumer perception of a brand name. Brand equity is one of the most significant intangible assets for consumer-facing businesses and influences pricing power, customer loyalty, and market share.
The accumulated knowledge, processes, systems, and culture that enable a firm to operate effectively. Organisational capital includes management practices, internal processes, proprietary methodologies, quality systems, and the institutional knowledge that persists beyond individual employees.
The economic value of a workforce's collective experience, skills, knowledge, creativity, and health. Investment in human capital through recruitment, training, development, and retention is a key intangible asset category and a primary driver of productivity growth.
Further Reading
How to Sell Your Business: The Owner's Guide
The full sell-side hub: what buyers value, how to prepare, and how to evidence it.
Read more →Related FAQ
What are the main types of intangible assets?
Under IFRS 3 and ASC 805 — the standards used in business combinations — intangible assets fall into five recognised classes: marketing-related, customer-related, artistic-related, contract-based, and technology-based.
Read full answer →What is my business worth to a buyer?
A buyer applies a multiple to your normalised earnings and sets that multiple on the quality of your intangible assets — brand, customers, technology, processes and people — not on last year's profit alone.
Read full answer →How do I reduce founder dependency before selling?
Document the decisions and relationships only you hold, distribute customer contacts across your team, build a management layer, and withdraw from day-to-day operations in stages so the business demonstrably runs without you.
Read full answer →Put this knowledge to work
Use Opagio's free tools to measure and grow the intangible assets that drive your business value.