Businesses must improve. Markets demand it. The status quo won’t cut it. Consumers want more, better, faster, cheaper. It’s the core of capitalism. To increase sales your business needs to constantly get better, unfortunately revenue and doing business get in the way.

Businesses measure revenue, market share, profit, funnel, inventories, productivity, efficiency, and growth. We get wrapped around measuring these things. They become the holy grail of our business. We give them creative little names like KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) or KBM’s (Key Business Metrics). We become fanatical in our management and measurement of these goals. Making sure we achieve them becomes the sole focus of the organization.

But what improves the numbers?

Better products, better people, better processes, better manufacturing, better tools, etc. Business gets better when these things get better. We need GBM’s (Getting Better Metrics) not just KPI’s.

How often does your company work at getting better? What are you doing to get better processes? How do you get better people? How do you get better products? Who is getting bonused on getting better?

Getting better is how businesses survive. Yet, getting better always seems to take a back seat to . . . well, you know, not getting better.

What are your GBM’s (Getting Better Metrics)?