The world is
highly quantitative – it’s all about the metrics and meeting the numbers.
Everyone is counting something – number of customer complaints, number of web
visits, percentage increase in sales, and the list goes on and on. With so much
emphasis on the quantitative side, the qualitative side gets lost and it is the
qualitative stuff that is becoming more important. One reason qualitative
information gets de-emphasized is that it is difficult to measure. If we can’t
measure it, then it gets ignored. This is one of the fallacies with financial
reporting; things like talent, leadership and brand recognition are no-where to
be found on the financial statement. But these qualitative characteristics are
the real drivers of performance and they warrant more attention in today’s quantitatively
obsessed world.
