Intangibles / Social Economics

I wanted to say to someone "I'll discuss the economics of this later". I hesitated because most of the 'economics' of the matter was in improving public relations, networking, and self-development. There was a good deal of value being discussed, but largely intangible. To frame the topic as a discussion about economics would send us down the unhelpful path of treating the deal as accountants not businessmen.

So I changed the phrase to "I'll discuss the social economics of this later."

Is this tidbit worth sharing? I'm not sure. But it seems an easy turn of phrase to build into our existing business language. Imagine you are making a business case for new HR software. If you say, "And now let's talk about the social economics..." or have a part of the written business case titled "Social Economics", then it firmly puts intangibles right in the discussion on par with accounting.

In these discussions make sure you keep all the usual accounting stuff, but have it in the context of all the intangible value being created.