I’ve got nothing against MBA’s. Even though I haven’t got one.
But there is a trend in management technique which worries me: namely an obsession with measurement. In fact, it’s not even the obsession with measurement which worries me; it’s the idea that apparently anything which can’t be measured is a bad thing.
Let me give you some examples.
I’m pretty sure that one of the reasons we seem to experience lousy customer service in this country is that goodwill is hard to measure. It’s easy to measure how many calls a CSR answers per hour. It’s easy to measure how much money a client has spent. But it’s hard to measure the goodwill that they feel. So a customer service representative who spends time with a customer will rarely be rewarded for it or respected for it.
Similarly, I am doing some work for a client at the moment- an exceedingly low-paying client. Last year, when I decided to focus my attention on larger and more lucrative clients, the metrics of my business suggested that this low-payer should go. However, the work I do with them introduces me to many more influential and deep-pocketed individuals, introductions which have already paid dividends. If I just went by the numbers, the client concerned would have long been consigned to the bin; to my loss.
I’m currently reading the (abysmally written but superbly informative) Maverick by Ricardo Semler. It’s the tale of a CEO who rips up the rulebook and runs his businesses like a democracy- much to the shock of managers and union reps. It’s a cracking read. Much of what Semler says seems to be based on the idea that received wisdom is based on metrics alone, which sometimes leads to fallacies. For example, metrics suggest that a worker makes fewer mistakes by having a single role on the production line. Semler instituted a team-based approach, where “cells” of workers changed roles regularly and took full responsibility for the completion of a product. They actually made fewer mistakes and completed more tasks, more efficiently, because they were happier (or more ‘engaged’ to use today’s parlance). Engagement, employee happiness and a sense of responsibility or ownership are just the sort of qualitative things that don’t measure very easily.
Do get Semler’s book- it’s a revelation. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with measurement per se, it’s not the be all and end all. Indeed it can mask the very human factors which may make a company tick.
Filed under: people skills, retail, service | Tagged: customer service, engagement, management, maverick, measurement, metrics, organisation, ricardo semler
