Measuring the Real Cost

[Measuring Success – V]

Are you looking for cheaper transportation? Storage? Source material?

Of course you’re measuring for the effect it has on your bottom line. That’s why you’re looking to shave off some of the cost.

But are you measuring how transport, storage, and source material negatively affects your final product? I don’t mean in ways that your customers notice; of course you’re attentive to that. I mean in ways that they are not. In ways that only you and the execs know about. The ways that you quietly sweep under the rug and choose to not mention at the next board meeting. I mean in the ways that are barely quantifiable, but you know, in the end, really make for an inferior product.

We need to measure that. And then face it.

The processes by which your “product” is produced are as much a part of the final result as the thing you “package” and sell.

And this goes for service agencies, non-profits, and faith communities. (Perhaps for churches most of all!)

Don’t just measure the expense, measure the real cost.