In business organisations, assets are of different types – we have tools and equipment to produce goods and services and in many businesses, the people themselves are the prime assets. Just as a lathe is an asset in the shopfloor of a manufacturing industry, a design engineer is an asset in a R & D lab.
However, it is interesting to observe that assets have both a functional as well as a symbolic utility. A lathe is a lathe, you might argue but the brand new lathe is assigned to the most experienced veteran of the shop not the junior most operator- though actually the junior person perhaps will profit more by using the more modern machine which really needs less skill to operate.
People at Work & Play 