"A value network is a way at looking at any purposeful organization, company, or network. It is any web of relationships that creates value through complex, dynamic exchanges of tangible and intangible value."

In this May 2006 session from the Mesh Forum in San Francisco, Verna Allee talks about the new idea of trying to identify, measure, and encourage, intangible business practices which don't show up on traditional balance-sheets and income-statements.

Traditional management tools increasingly do not present an accurate picture of how things really work in the new information age. For example, relationships between workers in different regions of the enterprise have become as important as those among workers who are close in proximity on a conventional org chart. Also, new information systems, and the resulting new practices, are creating a different understanding of the enterprise. These systems have genuine value, yet they do not show up as "assets" on traditional balance sheets.

Viewing all relationships as Value Networks provides a better way of understanding what is really generating a return. And it allows management, and individuals, to make the most of both the tangible and the intangible assets of the organization.