The ability to manage knowledge becomes an increasingly important strategic activity in today's so-called. knowledge economy. To prioritize the preservation and improvement of intellectual capital, creating and disseminating knowledge within a modern organization, is becoming an increasingly decisive factor in achieving and maintaining its competitive advantage. The only viable advantage of a modern organization comes from what the company knows and how effectively is used what it knows and how quickly it acquires and uses new knowledge. There is a positive relationship between the intellectual capital and the performance of an organization. Intellectual capital is in correlation with the organization's future performance, and the growth rate of intellectual capital is in a positive relationship with the organization's performance, while the contribution of intellectual capital to improving the organization's performance varies, and is the result of strategic management of the organization itself. In this context, only the learning organization, which is constantly looking for new, innovated and / or enhanced knowledge in the field of activity, has the conditions, chances and opportunities to move forward in the real world. In the modern world, the world of a knowledge-based economy, a competitive advantage that is sustainable on the narrow paths, can only be achieved if the organization takes a lasting commitment to learn, invest in people and their intellectual potential, to support the need of people to continuously explore, learn and accept new, more complete and applicable knowledge. Regarding this, investing in the intellectual capital in the short term may be a significant cost to the organization, but in the long run, any investment in the development of intellectual capital - new knowledge - both scientific, general theoretical, and practically applicable will have a multiplier positive effect on the future business of the organization. The experience of organizations from the world of work has unambiguously confirmed this. Namely, companies that base their business on exactly human cognitive and scientific potentials have the advantage, that is, the world's leading companies are in terms of profit. First of all, these are companies in the field of low-tech technologies, and they are not quite necessary because they are notorious. But, from the experience of such organizations, they can and / or have to learn all the organizations they intend to succeed in a modern, very turbulent business environment. This is especially important for those organizations that intend to be leaders in an area or branch of business. Today, leadership is not realized solely on the basis of the number of pieces produced by a product or on the basis of the number of transactions with the environment, on the contrary, the leader is the organization of work that is imposed as an organization where the intellectual, and parallel with it, also the human capital prevails. Because, it is known, also in practice, that only when people feel in a certain organization friendly, only then do they give their maximum contribution. Only in conditions of complete freedom, some seemingly lucid ideas become "full of hits" in realizing and meeting the needs of the market and people who market it.
Role of Intellectual Capital on Firm Performance (Evidence from Iranian Companies)