I have always wondered about the nebulous concept called happiness. With a greater amount of quantitative research reported (A prime example is the research about “Awe” by professor Jennifer Aaker at Stanford ), there has been a significant shift in approaches businesses and countries have taken.
Bhutan is small country hidden amongst one of the mystical corner of the Himalayas. Bhutan’s government recently moved to an unusual metric to measure the success of country’s strategy – gross national happiness. The introduction of this metric has not only helped Bhutan appear on the innovation map, it is also a testimony of the fact that any country and business can be driven by metrics, given that its the right metrics.
For a management group that wants to make decisions that have not been data driven in the past, I highly suggest you reconsider your approach. The dilemma is many fold:
- Is moving away from a gut only approach going against the norm
- Even if we consider using some metrics, which one should we use
- Some of the metrics are nebulous and need the entire organization to be aligned
A balanced scorecard provides an ideal framework to be a good starting point. It provides all the basic categories of metrics you will need to consider. The four basic categories of metrics it involves are:
- Financial metrics
- Customer satisfaction metrics
- Process metrics
- Learning and growth
What specific metrics you choose will depend on the kind of business you run. For e.g. a B2C company may choose total orders as the financial metrics but a B2B company may need to focus on total number of leads. At the end of the the day even though its like trying to find a needle in the haystack, its time well spent!
Strategy? 
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