What can’t be measured, can be effective

The problem with our obsession with measuring everything is that anything that can't be measured is considered ineffective at moving the business needle.

That's why CEOs kill the free toffees at reception.

That's why founders stop writing handwritten thank-you cards to customers.

That's why retail stores replace smiling associates with self-checkout kiosks.

That's why your sales rep no longer remembers your name—the CRM does that now.

None of these show up in a spreadsheet. You can't calculate the ROI of a smile or the conversion rate of remembering someone's daughter just started college. There's no dashboard for the feeling customers get when they unwrap a complimentary mint.

So we optimize them away—death by a thousand cuts to save a thousand pennies.

OTOH, Rory Sutherland observed on Lenny Rachitsky's podcast that "having a great brand means you get to play the game of capitalism on easy mode." But here's the rub—brand is built from exactly these non-measurable moments. Not by buying the first page ads in the most popular dailies!

It compounds invisibly, like a pension you forget you're paying into, until one day you realize customers are coming to you, employees work for less to join you, and people give you the benefit of the doubt when you stumble.

The businesses that win big aren't the ones with the best metrics. They're the ones that invest in what they can't measure.