Measure
You Get What You Measure
The phrase "you get what you pay for" is pretty easy to understand, but "you get what you measure" is a little more difficult -- measuring doesn't actually procure or "get" anything other than a measurement, and of course you get the measurement that you take -- that's self-evident, right? In the business world, though, people often seem to think that they can get whatever results they want simply by suiting the measurement to suit their own purposes, even if this doesn't really measure what they imagine it to. Measurements of the security of an investment, for example, are useless if they don't actually measure the likelihood of the investment failing or growing. Measures of market size are irrelevant if the market measured isn't specific to the product or service being marketed, price comparisons are invalid if substantial product differences...
The willingness to delude oneself about the potential for fantastic gains often steers investors, finance managers, and others involved in the business world to use measures that do not really "get" them what they are seeking.
Understood in this light, "you get what you measure" is actually somewhat similar to "you get what you pay for" -- both statements mean that the output will only be as valuable as the output. Careful and accurate measures that are truly objective and honest are the only measures that really matter; all else is delusion or potentially worse. Because of the tendency to inflate the chances of success and to support this inflation with supposed "evidence" gathered from a battery of inappropriate or haphazard measurements, all individuals engaged in business pursuits should take care to use measures that get them what they need.
Years ago,…
