Tim Powell, a colleague and expert in competitive intelligence, sees the financial crisis as a complete failure of scientific management. We use numbers all the time because measurement is better than superstition. Numbers aren’t perfect. but if we don’t restore confidence in these techniques, the whole economy will suffer.

When people—and I include institutions here, they’re run by people—can’t trust the numbers, they can’t trust the capital markets.  When they can’t trust the markets, they will not invest in those markets.  If they don’t invest in the markets, the markets will freeze up.  When the markets freeze, business can’t operate and will itself freeze—and that is exactly what is happening.

Without honest, quantifiable management techniques, our economy will look like the Soviet block – based on raw power, cult-of-personality warlord leadership.

Metrics can get onerous, but without them, we’re in the Stone Age.