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There was a time when KPI management dominated corporate discourse.
Even today, in some organisations, KPIs remain almost deified as the primary measure of corporate value.
Executives, uncertain about revenue or profit forecasts, often invoke KPIs as justification for delaying decisions.
At times, KPIs function less as tools of insight and more as psychological buffers—sources of reassurance.
Some perceptive professionals, such as certified public accountants, dismiss this outright:
“KPIs are points. They are neither lines nor surfaces.”
To reinterpret this slightly in my own terms:
KPIs fail to capture the intervals of management—the “space in between”.
Observing management solely through KPIs is akin to attempting to understand quantum phenomena using Newtonian mechanics.
In retrospect, the culture of modern capitalism—particularly before the global financial crisis—was, at times, remarkably fragile.