Measure What Matters to Clients: Using Key Predictive Indicators

In the sixteenth century, a new word appeared in English dictionaries—pantometry, which means universal measurement. Ever since, humans have been obsessed with counting things, from people and sheep to the amount of cars imported and the number of McDonald's hamburgers served. The problem for the pantometrists is the same one facing firms today: what should be measured? Facts and figures do not provide a context, or reveal truth; we still need our imaginations and creativity. If everything important has to be quantified to be comprehended, how are we to understand art, music, poetry, literature—indeed, our own human feelings?Metrics can certainly pronounce a fact, but they cannot explain it without an underlying context, or theory. Numbers have an unfortunate tendency to supersede other types of knowing.