The basic thesis is this: What ever we can measure and whatever we pay attention to, we improve. It's just like Hacker News karma. A management that forms a ti

The basic thesis is this: What ever we can measure and whatever we pay attention to, we improve. It's just like Hacker News karma. A management that forms a tight feedback loop with market watchers and stock prices tend to learn very quickly what pleases the market, and optimize for it. MBAs learn about how to hack the balance sheet so that earnings per dollar capital rise, and the stats look good. However, there are alternative management score cards being developed to measure businesses better. Measuring willingness of customers to refer friends is one. Mining companies for example measure near misses and lost time injuries as a priority because the publicity of one bad accident can jeopardize new investments.