The Future of Knowledge: Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks (Paperback)

by Verna Allee (Author) "There is really only one management question: What do we need to pay attention to in order to be successful?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Hemera Technologies Inc, Verna Allee, Harvard Business School Press (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"'The Future of Knowledge' is the future of your business!" -- Bipin Junnarkar, Vice President Data and Knowledge Management, HP

"A fascinating read that will challenge your assumptions about how it all works!" -- Hubert Saint-Onge, Chief Executive Officer, Konverge Digital Solutions Corp., former Senior VP, Strategic Capabilities at Clarica Life Insurance Company, Waterloo, Ontario

"Breaking new ground, Verna Allee gives meaning to how the networked organization can be understood at a practical everyday level. She pushes the edge of our collective understanding on how organizations can prosper as they cope with the new business rules imposed by the networks that are emerging to re-define every aspect of business. A fascinating read that will challenge your assumptions about how it all works!" - Hubert Saint-Onge, CEO, Konverge Digital Solutions Corp; former Senior Vice-President, Strategic Capabilities at Clarica

"In 'The Future of Knowledge' Verna Allee has interwoven complex subjects in an easy to understand way with outstanding lucidity and flow. Final chapters in this book will make business leaders across the world pause and reflect. I recommend this book for executives and managers of every level - in every industry. The Future of Knowledge is the future of your business!" - Bipin Junnarkar, Vice President Data and Knowledge Management, HP


"If the modern corporation is to make meaningful progress in the coming century, it has to radically re-orient itself around today"s sources of wealth - networked people and knowledge. Verna Allee"s latest book makes a serious contribution to helping advance our understanding of the new rules and strategies we must follow to build sustainable high performance in a knowledge-based economy." - Phil Hood, CEO Digital 4Sight


"If you want to increase the tangible and intangible assets of your company, rush to Verna Allee"s new book. It shows you in a very innovative clear and simple way how it"s all working. She gives also very challenging insights on tomorrow"s business and society." - Marc Luyckx Ghisi, Former member of the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission, Brussels, (1990-99), Director of "Vision 2020", a think tank on the Paradigm shift.


"Unless you are able to unlock the mystery of creating value from intangibles, your business is dead. Verna Allee"s new book holds one of the keys. The Value Network approach is a powerful and practical method based on theoretically sound principles. A must read." - Karl-Erik Sveiby, author The New Organizational Wealth, founder Sveiby Knowledge Management


""The Future of Knowledge" covers Verna Allee"s immense grasp of emerging business realities for all industries. The success of leadership lies within one"s capacity to understand the vast white space referred to as the "intangibles" that exist throughout our economy. Through Allee's writing and practice, intangibles become tangible and the invisible becomes visible. Exposure to Allee"s models and methodologies will help any practitioner to systematically expose, expand and act upon the domain of value creation for themselves, their organizations and for their customers." - Charles Armstrong, CEO, S.A. Armstrong Limited, Canada


"This book again shows Verna Allee"s great gift for making the complex simple and practical. In this book she builds and explores the metaphor of enterprise as a living network, successfully weaving together such diverse threads as value network analysis, communities of practice, social network analysis and biology. She shows us what to focus on now and, as always, provides a glimpse of the future. If you want to know what"s coming next in this rapidly evolving field, read this book." - Melissie Rumizen, Ph.D. author "The Complete Idiot"s Guide to Knowledge Management" and Knowledge Strategist at Buckman Laboratories, Inc.


"Understanding intangibles has become one of the most important business and economic questions all over the world. Verna Allee takes us beyond industrial age management practices and shows us that people are the active agents in value creation. Using her revolutionary "HoloMapping"T techniques she makes "simplexity" out of the complex world of intangibles and people. The Future of Knowledge is a book that will have a strong influence on management thinking and education in the years to come." - Egil Sandvik, HR Norway and Head of Forum for Intellectual Capital, Norway


"During the 1990s, a plethora of books appeared on Knowledge Management. Many of these books concentrated on how a company could gain a competitive edge in the business world. What these books perhaps overlooked was that today's business world is an entirely different one - it is a world of networked patterns in which social relationships are paramount. Verna Allee's new book is groundbreaking for it asks the only question that matters - What do we need to pay attention to in order to be successful? Knowledge is only one of the capabilities which flow through the interrelated networks of a company, its employees, it suppliers and its clients. The Future of Knowledge helps us realize that those in the systemic, interrelated business world now need to pay attention to so much more." - Kim Sbarcea, Chief Knowledge Officer, Ernst & Young Australia


"Leaders who want to create sustainable businesses must read Allee"s book to understand the importance of using organizational order and disorder to create prosperity through networks. This well researched guide helps us understand and learn the new language and tools to create wealth from intangibles." - Sharon Oriel, Director, Global Intellectual Capital Tech Center, The Dow Chemical Company


"Verna Allee has created the next step in providing a framework and a tool to deal with the ever elusive intangibles. It gives hope that the soft side of the organization can be measured!" - Victor Gulas, Chief Knowledge Officer of MWH Global, Inc.


"Our challenge as leaders, executives, and educators is to create organizations that are able to adapt and contribute positively to the environments they serve. In The Future of Knowledge, Verna Allee persuasively shows us how the rapid changes in our thinking about organizations and work can contribute to bringing about true and equitable prosperity. She demonstrates that we must add a new cognitive dimension to our economic thinking in order to understand and optimize the new network realities of enterprises and their impact on the entire world." - John D. Adams, Ph.D., Director Organizational Systems Program, Saybrook Graduate School -- Review

"If you want to increase the tangible and intangible assets of your company, rush to Verna Allee’s new book." -- Marc Luyckx Ghisi, Former member of the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission, Brussels, (1990-99), Director of

"If you want to know what’s coming next in this rapidly evolving field, read this book." -- Melissie Rumizen, Ph.D. author ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management’ and Knowledge Strategist at Buckman Laboratories, Inc.

"The Value Network approach is a powerful and practical method based on theoretically sound principles. A must read." -- Karl-Erik Sveiby, author, The New Organizational Wealth, founder Sveiby Knowledge Management

Review
"Breaking new ground, Verna Allee gives meaning to how the networked organization can be understood at a practical everyday level. She pushes the edge of our collective understanding on how organizations can prosper as they cope with the new business rules imposed by the networks that are emerging to re-define every aspect of business. A fascinating read that will challenge your assumptions about how it all works!" - Hubert Saint-Onge, CEO, Konverge Digital Solutions Corp; former Senior Vice-President, Strategic Capabilities at Clarica

"In 'The Future of Knowledge' Verna Allee has interwoven complex subjects in an easy to understand way with outstanding lucidity and flow. Final chapters in this book will make business leaders across the world pause and reflect. I recommend this book for executives and managers of every level - in every industry. The Future of Knowledge is the future of your business!" - Bipin Junnarkar, Vice President Data and Knowledge Management, HP


"If the modern corporation is to make meaningful progress in the coming century, it has to radically re-orient itself around today"s sources of wealth - networked people and knowledge. Verna Allee"s latest book makes a serious contribution to helping advance our understanding of the new rules and strategies we must follow to build sustainable high performance in a knowledge-based economy." - Phil Hood, CEO Digital 4Sight


"If you want to increase the tangible and intangible assets of your company, rush to Verna Allee"s new book. It shows you in a very innovative clear and simple way how it"s all working. She gives also very challenging insights on tomorrow"s business and society." - Marc Luyckx Ghisi, Former member of the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission, Brussels, (1990-99), Director of "Vision 2020", a think tank on the Paradigm shift.


"Unless you are able to unlock the mystery of creating value from intangibles, your business is dead. Verna Allee"s new book holds one of the keys. The Value Network approach is a powerful and practical method based on theoretically sound principles. A must read." - Karl-Erik Sveiby, author The New Organizational Wealth, founder Sveiby Knowledge Management


""The Future of Knowledge" covers Verna Allee"s immense grasp of emerging business realities for all industries. The success of leadership lies within one"s capacity to understand the vast white space referred to as the "intangibles" that exist throughout our economy. Through Allee's writing and practice, intangibles become tangible and the invisible becomes visible. Exposure to Allee"s models and methodologies will help any practitioner to systematically expose, expand and act upon the domain of value creation for themselves, their organizations and for their customers." - Charles Armstrong, CEO, S.A. Armstrong Limited, Canada


"This book again shows Verna Allee"s great gift for making the complex simple and practical. In this book she builds and explores the metaphor of enterprise as a living network, successfully weaving together such diverse threads as value network analysis, communities of practice, social network analysis and biology. She shows us what to focus on now and, as always, provides a glimpse of the future. If you want to know what"s coming next in this rapidly evolving field, read this book." - Melissie Rumizen, Ph.D. author "The Complete Idiot"s Guide to Knowledge Management" and Knowledge Strategist at Buckman Laboratories, Inc.


"Understanding intangibles has become one of the most important business and economic questions all over the world. Verna Allee takes us beyond industrial age management practices and shows us that people are the active agents in value creation. Using her revolutionary "HoloMapping"T techniques she makes "simplexity" out of the complex world of intangibles and people. The Future of Knowledge is a book that will have a strong influence on management thinking and education in the years to come." - Egil Sandvik, HR Norway and Head of Forum for Intellectual Capital, Norway


"During the 1990s, a plethora of books appeared on Knowledge Management. Many of these books concentrated on how a company could gain a competitive edge in the business world. What these books perhaps overlooked was that today's business world is an entirely different one - it is a world of networked patterns in which social relationships are paramount. Verna Allee's new book is groundbreaking for it asks the only question that matters - What do we need to pay attention to in order to be successful? Knowledge is only one of the capabilities which flow through the interrelated networks of a company, its employees, it suppliers and its clients. The Future of Knowledge helps us realize that those in the systemic, interrelated business world now need to pay attention to so much more." - Kim Sbarcea, Chief Knowledge Officer, Ernst & Young Australia


"Leaders who want to create sustainable businesses must read Allee"s book to understand the importance of using organizational order and disorder to create prosperity through networks. This well researched guide helps us understand and learn the new language and tools to create wealth from intangibles." - Sharon Oriel, Director, Global Intellectual Capital Tech Center, The Dow Chemical Company


"Verna Allee has created the next step in providing a framework and a tool to deal with the ever elusive intangibles. It gives hope that the soft side of the organization can be measured!" - Victor Gulas, Chief Knowledge Officer of MWH Global, Inc.


"Our challenge as leaders, executives, and educators is to create organizations that are able to adapt and contribute positively to the environments they serve. In The Future of Knowledge, Verna Allee persuasively shows us how the rapid changes in our thinking about organizations and work can contribute to bringing about true and equitable prosperity. She demonstrates that we must add a new cognitive dimension to our economic thinking in order to understand and optimize the new network realities of enterprises and their impact on the entire world." - John D. Adams, Ph.D., Director Organizational Systems Program, Saybrook Graduate School

"Unlike other knowledge management books, the author has no intention to provide just theories or concepts for readers with a multitude of unanswered questions, or simply an overview of a conceptual model without further explanation. Rather, this book offers approaches and methods with detailed examples that can help readers operate more effectively in a business practice as well as in a more complex interdependent world." - Eric Kong, Monash University, Australia

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1 edition (September 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750675918
• ISBN-13: 978-0750675918
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #639,302 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing new look at established concepts, February 18, 2003

By	Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In this book Allee considers the changing nature, structure and identity of organizations, and the larger patterns of change that are currently unfolding in society. Taking the view that businesses are evolving into 'networked patterns of living systems', Allee observes that we require a different mindset and management tools to respond to these changes. This new mindset includes thinking of organizations as living systems, understanding the principles of networks and how they operate, taking a 'whole-system' view of the organization, understanding how intangibles go to market, and the significance of value networks, people and relationships.

Overall, the book offers a fresh, thought-provoking look at what have become already become well-worn concepts in the knowledge management field. Allee has synthesized a diverse array of ideas and concepts and theories from multiple disciplines to this work.

Part I tends to be a little abstract and theoretical and some of the ideas here about the new knowledge economy and intangible assets will not be new to anyone familiar with knowledge management. However, it does provide a useful context for subsequent chapters. At the end of chapter 5, the checklist of 'where we are now in the learning journey or knowledge continuum' is a useful summary of current thinking. Allee takes an organic view of knowledge networks and communities, such that rather than trying to create them in organizations, it is better to simply find those that already exist and make them visible to themselves and the rest of the organization.
The discussion on how intangibles 'go to market' challenges the notion that we can create value from them in the same way that we do from tangible assets. But perhaps the most interesting section of the book is that which discusses mapping value networks, and the practical examples that are provided. It is here that Allee brings together the concepts discussed in Part I and we begin to see the whole picture that she is building. These chapters will be of particular interest to practitioners who are attempting to grapple with creating value from knowledge in their own, or their client's organizations, and identifying where to focus their attention.
Allee has the capacity to discuss complex issues in a simple and straightforward way without allowing us to feel that we've been shortchanged. Essentially, each chapter offers a simple message. In her discussion of communities of practice, there is a clear message is that knowledge cannot be separated from the human networks that create it, use it and transform it. Similarly, in Chapter 6, she argues that the best technology infrastructure does not guarantee knowledge sharing - organizational intelligence is not a technology question, it is a human question.
At one point, Allee refers to the ancient saying that one cannot step into the same river twice (pp. 143) because the water is never the same water. This is analogous to what Allee has done with in this book - although the concepts, and ideas may seem familiar and have certainly been discussed previously in the plethora of books and articles currently available, she has presented them in a refreshing new way and brought together diverse ideas to challenge our assumptions. It is well worth reading.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, October 18, 2002

By	Melissie Rumizen (Germantown, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This book again shows Verna Allee's great gift for making the complex simple and practical. In this book she builds and explores the metaphor of enterprise as a living network, successfully weaving together such diverse threads as value network analysis, communities of practice, social network analysis and biology. She shows us what to focus on now and, as always, provides a glimpse of the future. If you want to know what's coming next in this rapidly evolving field, read this book

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Value Networks: Seeing the unseen value of intangibles, November 11, 2003

By	Dave Patrick "dave21185" (Healthy Enterprise, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) - See all my reviews

In today's crowded marketplace of business publications, it takes something that bit special to stand out and be noticed. A decade ago, Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline was widely regarded as one of the seminal business books of the 1990's, introducing to an appreciative and expanding audience the integrated concepts of systems thinking and the "learning organisation". This new book by fellow American author Verna Allee carries the potential to compete for similar accolades in this current decade.

The idea that there should be any enthusiasm about another book on knowledge would normally be questionable, given the number of books published on knowledge management in recent years, and the attendant hype accompanying such new challenges to business thinking. What makes Allee's contribution special is the elegant manner in which she takes a living systems approach to connect knowledge and value in a profound yet pragmatic way.

The focus on value is particularly appropriate for business given that profitability, the lifeblood of any commercial enterprise, depends on the discovery and creation of value. With the new era of the "extended enterprise" model of the organisation, in that any company competes in a supply chain and wider business ecosystem of customers, suppliers, joint venture partners and other stakeholders, the value network approach is a potentially powerful one in helping to identify, investigate and, ultimately exploit key relationships within the network.

Where Allee perhaps scores highest with her approach is in her treatment of intangible deliverables within value networks, and the introduction of a simple, practical set of tools to assist with the mapping of both intangible and tangible relationships. Because value networks take a living systems perspective, it deals with real people - either individuals, small groups or teams, business units, organisations, industry groups, communities or nation states - dealing with value exchanges flowing between participants in the network, linked by arrows showing the transactions and deliverables of value exchanges.

The power of value networks lies in its simplicity and practicality. As well as providing a structured framework for dealing with intangibles, it also raises interesting questions and challenges assumptions about the real nature of networks in action and the value being created (or destroyed) within these networks.

If business leaders aspire to understand the deeper dynamics of value creation in their extended enterprise networks, The Future of Knowledge will provide them with the philosophy, the roadmap and the tools to guide them.