
Steve Blank: Why Companies are Not Startups - prajjwal
http://steveblank.com/2014/03/04/why-companies-are-not-startups/
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nrao123
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...](http://pmarcatweetsasblogposts.tumblr.com/post/73631082205/measure-
performance-with-paired-metrics-for-best)

"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."

\----

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/](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." \---

