Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 24, 2015

” No, Bezos shouldn’t embed a C@D—Crying@Desk—metric on his KPI dashboard. As the New York Times article observed, “Amazon uses a self-reinforcing set of management, data and psychological tools to spur its tens of thousands of white-collar employees to do more and more.

Metrics 8

Metrics Management KPI Follow-up 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

As machine learning and AI algorithmic innovation transform analytics, I’m betting that next-generation algorithms will supercharge Pareto’s empirically provocative paradigm. Managers and their data science teams must reorganize themselves around extreme Pareto potentials and possibilities, not just more and better data.

KPI 8

KPI Analysis Innovation Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2017

Dave Calhoun, former vice chair at General Electric and now senior managing director at Blackstone, says that it’s better to double down on your winners than to invest in fixing the losers. We personally know of three executives who were pivotal in launching $100 million-plus innovations.

Marketing 9

Marketing KPI Company Incentives 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 12, 2015

Individual initiative and innovation in self-quantification increasingly matter more. “We’ve just begun using analytics more aggressively and, yes, we’ve found that our managers and employees who self-quantify are more receptive to this.” Consequently, they relentlessly self-quantify.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Self-aware KPI Metrics 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 8, 2015

Their innovation efforts tend to be focused wholly on the creation of new value; meanwhile, the question of how exactly they will be compensated for it usually goes unexamined. One typical reason is that top executives haven’t managed to clarify something even more fundamental: how much priority they place on increasing profit margins.

Balanced Scorecard 8

Balanced Scorecard Company Price KPI 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 27, 2017

At some of the world’s most successful enterprises — Google, Netflix, Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook — autonomous algorithms, not talented managers, increasingly get the last word. Elite MBAs (Management by Algorithm) are the new normal. Top management would have to trust its computationally brilliant bidding software.

Outsourcing 8

Outsourcing Software CAPEX Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

That is, platform providers and innovation ecosystems are rethinking how they really make money from, and with, their customers and partners. Entire KPI dashboards have apparently been built around receptivity/abandonment behaviors. So these UX themes transcend digital advertising trends.

Advertising 8

Advertising KPI Mission Statement Incentives 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 21, 2016

In the past few weeks, three corporate innovation clients have moved to — or had their roles expanded to include — their company’s training function. As one remarked, perhaps ruefully, “Now I’ve got to get the people who actually do the work to innovate.”

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Kaizen KPI 8