Steve Blank: Why Companies are Not Startups

The repetitive theme in this excellent post seems to be hard coded KPIs/Metrics.

For those of us who work at large organizations & who have to deal with metrics/KPIs, We need to understand that every time we track a metric/KPI, something else dies.

As Marc Andreessen, said this about metrics: http://pmarcatweetsasblogposts.tumblr.com/post/73631082205/m...

"The problem with arbitrary metrics in complex situations — they tend to backfire. Give emergency services drivers rigid response time metrics, and they’ll tend to stay close in to urban centers. Surprise! Andy Grove had the answer: For every metric, there should another “paired” metric that addresses adverse consequences of the first metric. Many companies and especially governments violate this principle continuously, and are startled by the result — every time."

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Also Clayton Christensen identified KPIs & Metrics that did not change as underlying customer behavior/industry changes as a key factor.

Here is an example:

http://harryjan.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/innovators-dilemma/

"At a certain point however the very metrics that the market leaders used to rate and sell their products reached a point where it was ‘good enough’ for the majority of customers. When the average Hard Drive’s rate of failure reaches <1% over a three year purchase period, there is little incentive for the customer to pay a big premium to purchase a drive with <0.8% rate of failure for example." ---