Are you truly measuring the right things? 📈 Spoiler alert: probably not.
Of all the accepted wisdom in business, “what gets measured gets managed” must be one of the most widely embraced truisms. How could we ever manage something that can’t be measured?
This quote is commonly attributed to Peter Drucker, the brilliant management theorist. But according to “The Drucker Institute”, he never actually said it. And for good reason, I dare say.
Because just because something can’t be measured, doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. And just because something CAN be measured, doesn’t mean it IS important.
For example, when the iPhone was released in 2007, every other mobile phone manufacturer was fixated on logical but incremental improvements that could be objectively measured: faster processor speed, more memory, smaller size, longer battery life.
All very sensible and objectively measurable.
But the iPhone wasn’t category-leading in any of those objective parameters. Initially, the battery life wasn’t that impressive (about 30 hours) and contrary to the prevailing trend, it was a very large phone. It didn’t have 3G – which competitors offered in their phones. And so on.
Apple’s advantage lay in rewriting the rules of customer value by asking a different, more human question: not “what can this mobile phone do?”, but rather “how does it FEEL to do it?”.
Apple’s advantage was psychological, not technological.
This “psychological added value” is something that is almost impossible to measure, but that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.
On the other hand, objective parameters like processor speed and battery life are very easy to measure, but that doesn’t mean they are the most important.
So, consider this: are you truly measuring the right things?
Here you can get more perspectives on how to measure success för your business customers.
