The Tyranny of Numbers

Metrics are a fact of business life—essential to measuring performance and executing strategy. But they can be pernicious. In “Don’t Let Metrics Undermine Your Business,” Michael Harris of Kenan-Flagler Business School and Bill Tayler of the Marriott School of Business demonstrate that performance management is frequently conflated with strategy—producing all sorts of unwelcome consequences. The problem is that business metrics are inherently imperfect; most are used to quantify an intangible goal. Even earnings, the most common measure, represents an abstract concept. As the authors say, “Your performance management system is full of metrics that are flawed proxies for what you care about.”