Establishment of a quarterly rolling planning regime, wherein management both sets out its revenue and expenditure requirements for the next 18 months and seeks approval for expenditure planned for th...
What they really mean is that numbers can be used to confuse people, especially the gullible ones lacking basic skills with numbers. With this, I completely agree,
The fact is that the preference for ignorance over even marginal reductions in ignorance is never the moral high ground. If decisions are made under a self-imposed state of higher uncertainty, policy...
It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible. —Aristotle (...
Is a programmer who gets 99% of assignments done on time and 95% error free better than one who gets only 92% done on time but with a 99% error-free rate? Is total product quality higher if the defect...
A problem well stated is a problem half solved. —Charles Kettering (1876–1958), American inventor, holder of 300 patents, including electrical ignition for automobiles There is no greater impediment t...
Whether a finding is statistically significant is not the same thing as whether your current state of uncertainty is less than it was before or what the economic value of that uncertainty reduction wo...
The common characteristic of these measures is that they are the result of many actions. They give a clear picture of whether you are traveling in the right direction. They do not, however, tell you w...
Performance measure. Throughout this book, the term performance measure refers to an indicator used by management to measure, report, and improve performance. Performance measures are classed as key r...
Once managers figure out what they mean and why it matters, the issue in question starts to look a lot more measurable.
If we incorrectly think that measurement means meeting some nearly unachievable standard of certainty, then few things will be measurable even in the physical sciences.
1. Key result indicators (KRIs) tell you how you have done in a perspective or critical success factor. 2. Result indicators (RIs) tell you what you have done. 3. Performance indicators (PIs) tell you...
The traditional form of Hoshin Kanri, there is a grouping of four perspectives. It is no surprise that the balanced scorecard perspectives are mirror images (see Exhibit 1.8). As with the balanced sco...
We find no sense in talking about something unless we specify how we measure it; a definition by the method of measuring a quantity is the one sure way of avoiding talking nonsense. . . . —Sir Hermann...
The commonplace notion that presumes measurements are exact quantities ignores the usefulness of simply reducing uncertainty, especially if eliminating uncertainty is not feasible (as is usually the c...
Result indicators that lie beneath KRIs could include: Net profit on key product lines Sales made yesterday Customer complaints from key customers Hospital bed utilization in week
The first 100 samples reduce uncertainty much more than the second 100. In fact, even the first 10 samples tell you a lot more than the next 10. The initial state of uncertainty tells you a lot about...
One example is how Amazon.com provides free gift wrapping in order to help track which books are purchased as gifts. At one point Amazon was not tracking the number of items sold as gifts; the company...
Hoshin Kanri Business Methodology The balanced scorecard had its origins in Hoshin Kanri, so it is appropriate to examine this business methodology. As I understand it, translated, the term means a bu...
The PIs help teams to align themselves with their organization’s strategy. PIs are nonfinancial and complement the KPIs; they are shown with KPIs on the scorecard for each organization, division, depa...