How to Measure Anything
Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business
1st Edition
Published on 17. August 2007
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-470-11012-6 (ISBN)
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.
"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.
Reviews / Votes
"Over the past several posts I've been discussing how networkers can reduce supposed "immeasurables" or "intangibles" to something that can in fact be measured, and I've been using Douglas Hubbard's excellent book How to Measure Anything as a guide. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of the book if you want more details about the approach I've been discussing. For a small book, it covers a lot of ground." (networkworld.com, April 4th, 2009) "Interestingly written and full of case studies and rich examples, Hubbard's book is a valuable resource for those who routinely make decisions involving uncertainty. This book is readable and quite entertaining, and even those who consider themselves averse to statistics may find it highly approachable." (Strategic Finance, September 2008) "How many times have you been asked to quantify something that is nebulous or intangible? As a system engineer at Sun, this happens to me all the time. A colleague of mine referred me to How to Measure Anything...one of the best books I've seen in this area." (blogs.sun.com; 1/28/08) "After reading Hubbard's excellent book on 'How to Measure Anything', I was able to immediately solve several measurement challenges for my CEO and Business Owner colleagues. It should be on every manager's desk." (Amazon.com; 10/07) "...the book for anyone who wants to know how to measure the value of information or any other intangible asset." (Computer Weekly, Tuesday 18th September 2007) "Hubbard has made a career of finding ways to measure things that other folks thought were immeasurable. Quality? The value of telecommuting? The risk of IT project failure? the benefits of greater IT security? Public image? He says it can be done -- and without breaking the bank. Many IT steering committees won't approve projects that "can't be measured," so it behooves CIOs to figure this out! ... If you'd like to fare better in the project-approval wars, take a look at this book." (ComputerWorld, 8/07) "... allows [companies] to measure performance in such diverse areas as customer satisfaction, employee morale, quality and organisational flexibility." (CPO Agenda, Autumn 2007)More details
Edition
1., Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
Chichester
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 23.8 cm
Width: 16 cm
Weight
574 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-470-11012-6 (9780470110126)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
05/2010
2nd Edition
Wiley
€43.90
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Douglas W. Hubbard is the inventor of Applied Information Economics (AIE), a measurement methodology that has earned him critical praise from The Gartner Group, Giga Information Group, and Forrester Research. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of IT value and is a popular speaker at numerous conferences. He has written articles for?Information Week, CIO Enterprise, and DBMS Magazine. Formerly with Coopers & Lybrand, he has over twenty years' experience in IT management consulting, including twelve years' experience specifically in teaching organizations to use his AIE method. Dozens of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies have applied his method to IT investments, military logistics, venture capital, aerospace, and environmental issues. Find out more at www.howtomeasureanything.com.
Content
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Section I. Measurement: The Solution Exists.
Chapter 1. The Intangibles and the Challenge.
Chapter 2. An Intuitive Measurement Habit: Eratosthenes, Enrico & Emily.
Chapter 3. The Illusion of Intangibles: Why Immeasurables Aren't.
Section II. Before You Measure.
Chapter 4. Clarifying the Measurement Problem.
Chapter 5. Calibrated Estimates: How Much Do You Know Now?
Chapter 6. Measuring Risk: Introduction to the Monte Carlo Simulation.
Chapter 7. Measuring the Value of Information.
Section III. Measurement Methods
Chapter 8. The Transition: From What Measure to How to Measure.
Chapter 9. Sampling Reality: How Observing Some Things Tells Us about All Things.
Chapter 10. Bayes: Adding to What You Know Now.
Section IV. Beyond the Basics.
Chapter 11. Preference & Attitudes - The Softer Side of Measurement.
Chapter 12. The Ultimate Measurement Instrument - Human Judges.
Chapter 13. New Measurement Instruments for Management.
Chapter 14. A Universal Measurement Method - Applied Information Economics.
Appendix. Calibration Tests.
Index.
Acknowledgements.
Section I. Measurement: The Solution Exists.
Chapter 1. The Intangibles and the Challenge.
Chapter 2. An Intuitive Measurement Habit: Eratosthenes, Enrico & Emily.
Chapter 3. The Illusion of Intangibles: Why Immeasurables Aren't.
Section II. Before You Measure.
Chapter 4. Clarifying the Measurement Problem.
Chapter 5. Calibrated Estimates: How Much Do You Know Now?
Chapter 6. Measuring Risk: Introduction to the Monte Carlo Simulation.
Chapter 7. Measuring the Value of Information.
Section III. Measurement Methods
Chapter 8. The Transition: From What Measure to How to Measure.
Chapter 9. Sampling Reality: How Observing Some Things Tells Us about All Things.
Chapter 10. Bayes: Adding to What You Know Now.
Section IV. Beyond the Basics.
Chapter 11. Preference & Attitudes - The Softer Side of Measurement.
Chapter 12. The Ultimate Measurement Instrument - Human Judges.
Chapter 13. New Measurement Instruments for Management.
Chapter 14. A Universal Measurement Method - Applied Information Economics.
Appendix. Calibration Tests.
Index.