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xiv I wrote this book to correct a costly myth that permeates most organizations today: that certain things can't be measured.
xv All important decision makers could benefit from learning that anything they really need to know is measurable... I've made a career out of measuring the sorts of things many thought were immeasurable.
xvi In the course of writing this book, I felt as if I were exposing a big secret and that once the secret was out, perhaps a lot of apparently intractable problems would be solved. I even imagined it would be a small "scientific revolution" of sorts for managers
p.3 As the title of this book indicates, we will discuss how to find the value of those things often called "intangibles" in business. The reader will also find that the same methods apply outside of business.
p.3 Like many hard problems in business or life in general, seemingly impossible measurements start with asking the right questions. Then, even once questions are framed the right way, managers and analysts may need a practical way to use tools to solve problems that might be perceived as complex.
p.5-6 write down those things you believe are immeasurable or, at least, you are not sure how to measure. After reading this book, my goal is that you will be able to identify methods for measuring each and every one of them. Don't hold back... the methods herein apply... the focus here is on measurements that are relevant - even critical - to major organizational decisions, and yet don't seem to lend themselves to an obvious and practical measurement solution... the methods we will discuss are fundamental to any measurement problem regardless of whether it is mentioned by name.
p.6 Just read the entire book and apply the steps described. Your immeasurable will turn out to be entirely measurable. [JLJ - Yeah right.]
p.7 Upon reading the first edition of this book, a business school professor remarked that he thought I had written a book about the somewhat esoteric field called "decision analysis" and disguised it under a title about measurement so that people from business and government would read it. I think he hit the nail on the head. Measurement is about supporting decisions, and there are "micro-decisions" to be made within measurements themselves.
p.9 Unless someone is planning on selling the information or using it for their own entertainment, they shouldn't care about measuring something if it doesn't inform a significant bet of some kind.
[JLJ Not quite correct in my opinion. Measurement can help us to generally understand (and ponder) the world around us, and it can also help us decide how to "go on" - every moment we are alive, the knowledge present in our brain sparks us to action of some kind - a measurement - perhaps as simple as the presence of a cue in the environment, can cause us to take one path rather than another, or perhaps start a conversation with someone at a party we otherwise would not have spoken to. Perhaps we use the measurement to break down the complexity we face in one way rather than another. Rather than a bet, I would propose *part of a scheme of some kind*. We are all schemers. Or, at least I am.]
p.49 Usually, only a few things matter - but they usually matter a lot
p.49 what makes a measurement of high value is a lot of uncertainty combined with a high cost of being wrong.
p.80 If you understand it, you can model it
p.87 With these definitions, we have a much more specific understanding of what "improved..." really means and, therefore, of how to measure it. When I ask the question, "What are you observing when you observe improved...?" ...management can now answer specifically.
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