Unlock the Value of Intangibles in Business: A Guide to Measuring Anything

Amazon Customer: Great Resource

Canada on May 09, 2023

vbarek: After reading the book, I organized a seminar for four managers involved in decision support at the company. After each chapter participants were tasked to apply what we learned to our business. Already by the 5th chapter we found important key performance indicators that we could measure much faster with minimal loss of accuracy, and, more importantly, reduce uncertainty of "gut" decisions.

United States on Feb 17, 2023

William Ender: "How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business" is a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their decision-making and problem-solving skills. The book provides a framework for thinking about and measuring intangible assets, such as knowledge, expertise, and customer satisfaction.

One of the key takeaways from the book is the importance of accurately measuring intangible assets in order to make informed business decisions. The author, Douglas W. Hubbard, presents a range of techniques for doing so, including the use of surrogate measures, decision trees, and the application of probability theory.

One of the strengths of the book is its practicality. The author provides numerous examples and case studies to illustrate the concepts he introduces, making it easy to understand and apply the ideas to real-world situations.

Overall, "How to Measure Anything" is a well-written and thought-provoking book that is sure to be of interest to anyone looking to improve their ability to measure and value intangible assets.

United States on Jan 07, 2023

Samya Daleh: My new favorite book! It combines stories of famous people who measured something in creative ways - my favorite is a guy who measured the force of a nuclear explosion by throwing confetti in the air and seeing how for the shockwave took it. Combines with explanations how to apply this in a business context or any context where it makes sense to measure anything. Because one takeaway is that we only take the effort it is relevant for a decision.
However, it personally inspired me to measure the height of a tower by the length and arc of its shadow just for fun. The book frees my mind about what we can measure and how to do it - or even how companies might do it to collect data about their customers.
Some math examples were hard to understand even for me and it might help to go through them by oneself. However, I think if you're not that into math you can still find the book entertaining and interesting and just skip the math examples.

Germany on Feb 14, 2022

Jess: Yes, this is a difficult one to sit down and read straight through. And yes, it might be common sense for some. However I would think that those folks especially would appreciate the way that the book breaks down data-based decision making for people who aren't really sure where to start. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone I can, but I would recommend using it more as a textbook or reference. Read the first part, but visit his website and perform the exercises as you learn. Then review the rest of the book as needed, ans refer back to it when you have a tricky problem that you aren't sure how to start on. Even if this seems like common sense there is something new for everyone to learn.

United States on Jan 07, 2022

NMeisel: É um curso prático e interessante de estatística aplicada, para relembrar e incrementar o que a gente sabia de estatística. Requer leitura atenta.

Brazil on Sep 12, 2021

Silvestre MT: Una gran lectura que te ayuda a transformar tus palabras o ideas generales a puntos muy concretos que te pueden llevar a tener una medición correcta de objetivos.

Es un libro que te enseña que en realidad nada es subjetivo, solo tienes que aire fer a hacer las preguntas correctas.

Mexico on Feb 21, 2019

DGallo: This was a required text for a class for my Masters of Science in Organizational Leadership. I was terrified-I thought this was a statistics course. I had nothing to fear. This guy is a genius. The formulas he has developed to measure things that you would assume are impossible to measure are amazing. You don't need to know math-the equations are in the excel spreadsheets you download! Think of something you don't think you could measure. You can measure it, and this book shows you how. Very interesting and understandable, even for a math dummy like me.

United States on Jul 25, 2017

CJ: As a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, I thought I would find this book interesting and I wasn't wrong.
The book explains the purpose of measuring things, which is not to know their value as exactly as possible, but to know their value enough to make an informed decision. It explains how to approach the measurement of what would otherwise appear to be intangibles. And it demonstrates that the majority of us are not nearly as good as estimating as we think we are, and then shows us how to get better at this. This book will improve your decision making and will give you the tools to help others do the same.

United Kingdom on Feb 04, 2017

Felix Hathaway: I was introduced to Mr. Hubbard's writing through a recommendation from a friend on another book of his,  The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix It . After seeing his critical breakdown of a problem that many in business face, I was eager to see how he tackles another major issue with the measurement of intangibles. The attempt to put a number on something not easily quantified has been an interest of mine, particularly on the end of business valuation. I was intrigued by the likes of Warren Buffet who seemingly through infinite wisdom find the magic number a company was worth and make investment decisions from it. After reading this book from Hubbard, things can be seen in a whole new light.
The opening of How to Measure Anything focuses on trying to both dispel of statistical myths that surround the topic, as well as try to specify the language and concepts that we need to approach measurement of things not clearly quantified. A major idea is focusing on uncertainty and how we can reduce it in order to make better decisions. Combining this with relatively sophisticated statistical tools such as Monte Carlo modelling, Hubbard outlines an approach...

United States on May 31, 2016