by Douglas W. Hubbard
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Product Description
Praise for How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business
"I love this book. Douglas Hubbard helps us create a path to know the answer to almost any question in business, in science, or in life . . . Hubbard helps us by showing us that when we seek metrics to solve problems, we are really trying to know something better than we know it now. How to Measure Anything provides just the tools most of us need to measure anything better, to gain that insight, to make progress, and to succeed."
-Peter Tippett, PhD, M.D.
Chief Technology Officer at CyberTrust
and inventor of the first antivirus software
"Doug Hubbard has provided an easy-to-read, demystifying explanation of how managers can inform themselves to make less risky, more profitable business decisions. We encourage our clients to try his powerful, practical techniques."
-Peter Schay
EVP and COO of
The Advisory Council
"As a reader you soon realize that actually everything can be measured while learning how to measure only what matters. This book cuts through conventional clichés and business rhetoric and offers practical steps to using measurements as a tool for better decision making. Hubbard bridges the gaps to make college statistics relevant and valuable for business decisions."
-Ray Gilbert
EVP Lucent
"This book is remarkable in its range of measurement applications and its clarity of style. A must-read for every professional who has ever exclaimed, 'Sure, that concept is important, but can we measure it?'"
-Dr. Jack Stenner
Cofounder and CEO of MetraMetrics, Inc.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Great advance!, 2008-06-30
This book describes one strategic issue: it's possible to measure anything. Today this is one of most important points for the culture of execution and double this importance wnhe focused on intnagibles.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Quantifying Soft Knowledge, 2008-06-20
Perhaps the most frequent question from decision analysis team members is, "How do we get the inputs?" In most evaluations, there are several key variables about which we know little. Consider oil price, for example. We have abundant historical data, yet forecasting future prices is a daunting challenge.
Doug Hubbard has written an entire book about capturing quantitative judgments. His approach differs from the usual decision analysis process. In a conventional analysis, we assume that that a subject matter expert (SME) can be identified for each key variable. Then, a skilled interviewer carefully elicits the SME's judgment through an interview process.
Hubbard takes a different approach. People familiar with the type project are assembled and given calibration training. Becoming calibrated might take perhaps a half-day of practice exercises and feedback. Basically, being "calibrated" means that one can consistently provide judgments of 90% confidence intervals that avoid the "overconfidence" bias. The book provides several example quizzes for the reader to self-assess.
Even though I was well-aware of the overconfidence bias, I still performed poorly on the self-assessment tests (history was never my strong subject!). Of course, the questions for a technical group would be crafted from topics within the area of interest. Whether (a) expert in the quiz subject matter or not and (b) being told in advance that people tend to be overconfident about the quality of their knowledge doesn't seem to affect the overconfident bias. Practice and feedback are the antidotes.
Hubbard's training and consulting examples are engaging. It has been years since I've devoured a technical book so thoroughly. While the reader will pick-and-choose methods of most interest, the "measurement" topic is well-covered.
The book contains many shortcuts and heuristics for rapid problem-solving. Many people never attempt to quantify intangibles. Yet, most people with some modest training are able to provide credible judgments in quantitative form.
A sampling of topics includes:
* Modeling and Monte Carlo simulation
* Designing experiments for measurement
* Decomposition
* Heuristics for obtaining simple statistics
* Value of perfect information, for screening which variables are worthwhile measuring
* Bayes' rule (because we almost always have some prior information about the subject of the observation)
* Cognitive biases
How to Measure Anything is well-written and carefully edited. The companion Web site, [...], offers additional calibration questions, several calculation spreadsheets, and additional information.
Persons reading this book will be the better for it.
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
How to measure anything, 2008-04-20
Conceptually a good book, It would be better with more examples in the business world such as measuring value of better communincations or value of intellectual property. These are vexing issues today. However, the though process to getting to an answer in this book was worth the price.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Measuring Intangibles..........................., 2008-03-13
This book addresses the measurement problem that managers face when it comes to placing a value on the important but vague factors that affect the decision-making process. I like the way he clearly defines the steps that the manager should take. I also like the conversational style of the book.
In general, he shows that measuring associated costs and other phenomena that affect the decision-making process is not that big a deal once you are able to define the aspects that you feel affect your processes and also determine the context in which these aspects are important to you, as a manager.
However,as an accountant, I find that it does not address the issue of intangibles from my perspective. How does the accountant measure physical intangibles that are not accounted for on the books, but that clearly affect the market value of the company? Intangibles like R&D, intellectual property and internally developed software should be accounted for but are not for lack of a dependable method of measurement. The book doesnt provide an answer to this question, so if you are an accountant looking to measure an intangible for purposes of reporting them, this book will not provide an answer, but if you are a manager or just someone who likes placing a value on the happenings that you find interesting, go for it. You will not be disappointed.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A new perspective on intangibles, 2008-03-13
Hubbard's book refutes the commonly held belief that intangibles are immeasurable. In the book, he provides a clear definition of measurement and presents a simple and easy to follow method of measuring so-called intangibles. When measurement is viewed as a reduction of uncertainty, as Hubbard suggests, we are freed from finding absolute answers. Hubbard also offers several examples of how measuring intangibles has led real-life businesses to make better decisions.
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