How to Measure Anything

Immeasurable Odds

Executives face decisions daily that require assessment of risk, calculation of worth or prediction of an outcome. You can weigh the quantitative aspects of business decisions, such as how many widgets to produce or what your share of the widget market might be. But most executives shy away from measuring intangibles, those amorphous ideas or values that seemingly defy objective quantification. And because managers believe that some things simply cannot be measured, they make decisions with imperfect knowledge or understanding.

“Anything can be measured.” If you can see, sense or feel something, you can measure it. Just how you will measure it depends on how well you frame your query. Measurement is not about getting a precise, correct answer; it’s about lessening uncertainty. Reducing ambiguity is better than not considering an issue’s dimensions at all, particularly if the issue plays a large role in your decision making.

Be Creative

You don’t have to be a statistician or even good with numbers to measure something. You must simply be observant. That’s how second century BC scholar Eratosthenes first determined the Earth’s circumference...