In the (probably fictional) Russian Nail Factory example, the customer would reject the nails, if there was a real customer, not a planned economy. External me

In the (probably fictional) Russian Nail Factory example, the customer would reject the nails, if there was a real customer, not a planned economy. External metrics are harder to game. For example, many car companies pay attention to IIHS safety statistics, JD Power Ratings, etc. You still need internal metrics, but it's harder to have target drift when you also have external organizations measuring things. In the NYPD example, you could imagine state and federal law enforcement oversight of the city. Or the city could measure civilian complaints. At some point you have to have good faith, just metrics don't do anything by themselves.