KPI Problems

When little report-production problems become a disaster

By Bernie Smith | June 6, 2012

I’ve sat in a lot of MI (management information) departments over the years and have noticed a common theme. You can tell when there’s going to be highly visible (and embarrassing) failure in KPI and measure production well before the event. There’s a well established concept called Heinrich’s Accident Pyramid that asserts that a number near-miss events increase the probability of more…

Buying rugs and broken broadband connections

By Bernie Smith | October 6, 2011

There’s something curious happens when you write a number down. It somehow becomes “official”. I realised this a few years ago when haggling for rugs in India. The traders would write down the figure on a piece of paper and show it to you when you were haggling. I naively assumed this was to avoid…

How to get a perfect quality score in 24 hours…

By Bernie Smith | March 7, 2011

Many KPIs and targets can be an invitation for creative dishonesty. How do you make sure you don’t accidentally drive self defeating behaviours?