Use Value Network maps to understand how your organization works from the bottom up

We usually look at organizational networks at three levels. The first (described as a knowledge factory) is at a strategic level, built on the high-level inventory of an organization’s intangible capital. Today, I’ll talk about the next takes the perspective of the knowledge factory down one more level of detail (third perspective, personal networks comes tomorrow).

This perspective looks at the roles people play in your organization. This is the Value Network methodology described by Verna Allee in The Future of Knowledge (still one of my favorite books on the knowledge economy and why I pursued certification in this methodology*).

This approach involves mapping a network where a specific task or process occurs. The nodes in this network are “roles.” A role speaks to the specific function that a person is playing. This is not their title on an org chart—it is usually more descriptive—such as advisor, buyer, designer, marketer, mentor, partner, problem solver. It is common for a person to serve in more than one role. Read more

Three Ways to Look at IC

Intangible capital is still a very abstract concept to most people. As we begin to do more and more work that is explicitly related to IC optimization and corporate growth, we are finding three approaches to visualization that are especially  helpful.

Inventory - The first one is to look at a simple inventory of the key intangibles that drive an organization. This is usually focused on the revenue generation side of business. This is a high-level list but a good starting point for a discussion of the basic assets driving the organization’s operations. Read more

The Stock Market is Not the Best Way to Value Intangibles

In the Value Networks discussion group here, someone recently asked the question about the value of intangibles now that the stock market has declined so precipitously. Many of us in the field have used the shorthand formula: market cap – tangible book value = intangibles.

This got me started and I posted the following answer. Most of these themes have been explored in previous posts but this one pulls a lot of it together… Read more