Blog: David Loshin

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The Primary Performance Metric

In an conversation earlier today, Michael Hawksworth, president of MSS Technologies commented (and I am paraphrasing) that "every business has one primary performance metric," suggesting that all other performance or productivity measurements all ultimately rolled up into that primary metric. This concept immediately resonated with me, as many of our own consulting engagements involve working with the client to articulate their business objectives and to look at how poor data quality impacts achieving those objectives.

I have never been a fan of corporate "mission statements," since most of them are bloated, self-important ramblings about how much the company cares for its employees. However, if a company could clearly define its mission statement in terms of its core business objective, then the senior managers could at the same time qualify that performance metric, and articulate a strategy for how all activity rolls up into that metric. Of course, this would simplify reporting also, as these guidelines would, by default, also describe the process for building business cases for any kind of technology investment. An interesting idea...

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