✅ If 92% of corporate value is intangible, why is public relations still treated as overhead?

If you work in public relations, this is the boardroom conversation.

Trust, governance and reputation are no longer soft assets. They are enterprise value.

The global economy has shifted decisively towards intangible value (brand, trust, intellectual property, culture and stakeholder confidence) yet the discipline most closely associated with these assets still struggles to assert its role in enterprise value creation.

The latest Intangible Asset Market Value Study by Ocean Tomo makes the shift explicit.

In 1975, tangible assets accounted for 83% of the market value of the S&P 500. By the end of 2025, that figure had fallen to 8%. Intangible assets now represent 92% of market capitalisation.

This is a structural inversion of enterprise valuation. Yet in many organisations, public relations remains positioned as a communications support function rather than a strategic management discipline.

The economy has reweighted itself

Ocean Tomo’s data describes a 50-year transformation. Between 1985 and 2005 alone, intangible asset value surged from 32% to 79%. More striking still, from 2020 to 2025 intangible value held at roughly 90% despite aggressive monetary tightening in the US.

Economic theory would suggest that intangible-intensive firms, with long-duration cash flows and limited collateral, should be more exposed to interest rate shocks. They were not.

This broader shift in valuation logic also provides important context for recent attempts to quantify reputation directly. Research by Burson, for example, argues that reputation contributes measurable “unexpected” shareholder return and represents a distinct component of market value.

Whether one accepts the precise modelling assumptions or not, the direction of travel is consistent: if intangible assets dominate enterprise value, then isolating reputation as a financial variable moves it from narrative to numbers.

A discipline repositioning itself

Against this backdrop, the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) has introduced a new definition of public relations:

“The strategic management discipline that builds trust, enhances reputation and helps leaders interpret complexity and manage volatility – delivering measurable outcomes including stakeholder confidence, long-term value creation and commercial growth.”

This positions public relations explicitly as:

• A management discipline focused on relationships, trust and reputation

• A mechanism for navigating complexity and volatility

• A driver of long-term value creation and commercial growth

The alignment with economic reality is clear.

Governance signals move markets

International comparisons reinforce the point.

The S&P Europe 350 has maintained intangible asset levels of 70–75% despite geopolitical instability and regulatory reform.

Japan has seen a material uplift in intangible value associated with governance reform.

China’s CSI 300, by contrast, experienced a sharp decline in intangible value following regulatory intervention in the technology and education sectors.

Policy direction, regulatory clarity and institutional credibility materially influence market valuation. This is the core domain of modern public relations practice and should sit at the intersection of strategy, governance and stakeholder management.

The board-level implications

If 90% of enterprise value is intangible:

• Reputation risk is financial risk

  It warrants audit and risk committee oversight.

• Trust metrics belong alongside financial KPIs

  Stakeholder confidence is a leading indicator of performance.

• Ethical counsel protects valuation

  Governance decisions shape resilience and multiples.

• Public relations leadership belongs in strategic decision-making

  Not brought in after the fact to communicate decisions that have already been made.

The question is no longer whether public relations should sit at the management table. The question is whether boards can afford for it not to.

A moment of clarity

Boards are navigating geopolitical instability, regulatory activism, technological disruption and heightened scrutiny. Complexity is increasing, not receding.

In this environment, the ability to interpret volatility, maintain institutional trust and align stakeholder expectations with strategy is a core management function.

Intangible assets dominate corporate value. The evidence is unequivocal.

Organisations that structure leadership accordingly will protect and grow long-term value.

Those that continue to treat public relations as overhead may find the market has already reached a different conclusion.

I’m taking a break for a week and will be back on 23 February. In the meantime, I recommend downloading the Ocean Tomo report and reviewing the new PRCA definition.

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The communications and public relations function is being pulled upstream into management work at exactly the moment when organisations are becoming harder to govern, harder to predict and harder to legitimise.

The familiar reference points of practice (channels, campaigns, media relations, even stakeholder engagement as it has traditionally been understood) are no longer sufficient to explain what high-performing functions are doing, or why others are struggling.

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