Be suspicious of yardsticks as they tend to be discarded when they dont yield favorable results
Summary
- Be suspicious of yardsticks as they tend to be discarded when they dont yield favorable results
Details
- Most managers will be suspicious of the measure if they do not give the desired results
- Similar to shooting the arrow into a blank canvas and then drawing a bullseye around it
References
Quotes
“You should be suspicious of such an assertion. Yardsticks seldom are discarded while yielding favorable readings. But when results deteriorate, most managers favor disposition of the yardstick rather than disposition of the manager. To managers faced with such deterioration, a more flexible measurement system often suggests itself: just shoot the arrow of business performance into a blank canvas and then carefully draw the bull’s-eye around the implanted arrow. We generally believe in pre-set, long-lived, and small bull’s-eyes.”
One of the bull’s-eyes he considers notably unimpressive is the widely trumpeted achievement of “record earnings.” “After all,” he explains, “even a totally dormant savings account will produce steadily rising interest earnings each year because of compounding.”