Keeping Score: Using the Right Metrics to Drive World-Class Performance [Hardcover]

Mark Graham Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0814403271 | ISBN-13: 978-0814403273

Guidelines for measuring the data that count -- for a truer view of any organization's performance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Insightful and appropriate for organizations needing a new approach to working smarter. The steps outlined for linking key success factors to performance measures help organizational leaders focus on measuring the right things the right way."
Marie E. Artale, Customer Satisfaction Manager, IBM Corporation 06/01/04
"Keeping Score delivers comprehensive and easy-to-understand guidelines for the development or tune-up of an organizations measurement system. Written with the same user-friendly clarity of his popular book, Baldrige Award Winning Quality, Brown makes the overwhelming subject of measurement less intimidating through his step-by-step presentation."
Julie S. Mehta, Performance Consultant, U.S. Coast Guard 06/01/04
"Finally, a practical common-sense guide on how to develop and use measurements as tools for world-class performance."
Raymond C. Serretti, Director of Quality, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. 06/01/04
"Full of specific examples and best practices gathered from the authors years of working with world-class companies, Keeping Score offers practical advice and guidance for developing measurement systems that lead to organizational excellence."
Robert J. Mruz, Director, TQM, ITT Sheraton, North America 06/01/04 --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Book Description

"Every quality-conscious organization needs to measure critical data, but many businesses waste time tracking and reviewing non-essentials. This innovative book shows how to concentrate on the few key measures that indicate a firm's true performance. It focuses on the areas considered vital in the Baldrige Quality Award criteria, the premiere model for evaluating overall quality.

Readers will learn to select and use the right metrics for measuring financial, operational, and quality efforts, as well as longer-term measures such as customer and employee satisfaction, supplier performance, product/service quality, and environmental compliance. This guide will help them:

* evaluate their current approaches to measurement

* select the right metrics

* collect and report data more efficiently and usefully

* use the information to promote teamwork and strategy"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (June 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814403271
• ISBN-13: 978-0814403273
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Graham Brown has 30 years of experience consulting with organizations all over the world on measuring and managing performance. He is a top-rated keynote speaker and instructor for the Institute for Management Studies. Mark has his own consulting practice in Manhattan Beach, CA and may be contacted at: markgrahambrown.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Substantially Unsubstantial, June 24, 2003

By 

Stacey L. T. Boyle, Ph.D. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keeping Score: Using the Right Metrics to Drive World-Class Performance (Hardcover)

Substantially Unsubstantial

Keeping Score is a good high-level review of the importance of metrics in strategy-driven organizations. Brown employs Kaplan & Norton's balanced scorecard methodology to illustrate the relationship between measurement and strategy. He doesn't really deliver much more than you would find in Kaplan & Norton's classic Balanced Scorecard book. I would like to have seen more suggested metrics around the various "themes": financial performance, customer satisfaction, product/service quality, process and operation performance, supplier performance, and employee satisfaction. I know macro- and micro-metrics are organization-specific; however, there are "generic" financial and satisfaction metrics he could offer. The Measurement System Self-Assessment 50 -item survey illustrated in the book is a great resource. It can easily be customized, automated and administered to stakeholders responsible for developing measurement systems. I applaud Brown for consistently reinforcing the formative rather than purely summative evaluation model. That is, any measurement system must contain historical (lagging), current, and forecasting (leading) measures. Those systems that are driven by summative data (i.e., historical) do not serve the real purpose of a measurement system, which is to allow stakeholders to make well-informed and better business decisions. Oftentimes, Brown downplays the complexity of developing and implementing a measurement system. He makes statements such as "Measurement is easy" and "Designing your own new and improved measurement system may not be a much work as you think..." These kinds of statements are worrisome and misleading because developing a robust measurement system aligned with organizational strategy is no simple feat. Nor, should it be. One extremely important area that is only slightly addressed is that of system maintenance and integrating the system into business processes. Once a measurement system has been established clear guidelines should be established as to how the data will be employed and used to make decisions. A truly strategic organization will incorporate the measurement system into the daily operations of the organization.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A metrics course in a nutshell - never seen a better one, October 6, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keeping Score: Using the Right Metrics to Drive World-Class Performance (Hardcover)

Being a Baldrige examiner, Mark Graham Brown has a good handle on this subject matter. What he's been able to do is create a masterful work on the business of keeping score. He makes you think in a standardized way. Plus he gives you enough real life examples to get your creative juices flowing. He has also included a good evaluation tool. Great book to consider as a REFERENCE and also as a TEACHING TOOL. Good enough to be used as a teaching tool for a whole staff of people given some good facilitation.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You still find it difficult to measure!, August 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Keeping Score: Using the Right Metrics to Drive World-Class Performance (Hardcover)

This book is easy to read. There are no jargons or unfamiliar terms. The author gives many examples of how some corporations set metrics and measure them. However, unfortunately, you find in many cases that the author says "this is difficult to measure" or "this is one of the most difficult to measure". This book is a bit less useful than I expected.