This week there was a great guest post on The Tom Peters Weblog by Steve Yastrow, The Follies Of Marketing Measurement. I really enjoyed the article however I fully believe that this can be taken to many other facets of business.
I followed the article up by going to Steve Yastrow’s web site and looking up more of what he had to say and found the following; “The post focuses on the myopia inherent when an executive says, “If you can’t measure it, it’s not worth doing.” What BS. There are many things that can’t be measured directly that are worth doing.” Unfortunately too many businesses (large or small) fall into this belief.
Metrics are great histories however living by them is defeatist in nature. If you keep cutting to make the past numbers work and do not make an investment in the future you may not be there to reap the rewards. The future brings new and perhaps better opportunities for growth but if we plan our future on the absolute of the past we will never see it. Instead of how can we change to make those numbers work how about how can we change to make those numbers change for the better.
I would like to paraphrase a metaphorical statement that we have all heard, “Live by metrics, die by metrics”. It takes much more. Life is more than numbers. Steve’s last line in his entry; “… Look at them from many angles. Understand them. And then, look past the numbers and make the right decision.”
The future is not the past. One needs to take historical information, analyze it and then plan for and make an investment in the future. ROI is Return On Investment, I have never heard of Return On Metrics.
