Comments on: What Is Your ROE?

By: Luke Jian

Luke Jian — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:58:00 +0000

Reading @SQLRockstar post on Return On Experience. ROE vs. ROI and could not agree more.
http://thomaslarock.com/2012/05/what-is-your-roe/

By: Marlon Ribunal

Marlon Ribunal — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:05:00 +0000

This reminds me of Tony Hsieh’s “Delivering Happiness”. It’s all about the experience. People will forget what you did for them but they will always remember the feeling or experience. If you made them happy, they just appreciate that feeling. Chances are they talk about how you made them feel good. Or blog about that experience, like in this case.

By: Something for the Weekend - SQL Server Links 11/05/12

Something for the Weekend - SQL Server Links 11/05/12 — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:22:11 +0000

[…] What Is Your ROE? – Thomas Larock (Blog|Twitter) […]

By: Jerry Eshbaugh

Jerry Eshbaugh — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:27:00 +0000

Great article, really got me thinking about business process metrics, their use, abuse, and misuse. I believe the reason behind the ROI focus is that many times we focus our attention on things that have a zero or even negative ROI. I am sitting in a hotel right now that was most likely an old warehouse originally. Thousands of warehouses have been abandoned as part of the lean manufacturing revolution. People finally figured out that parts sitting in a warehouse deliver zero value until they are actually needed. This sparked the whole Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing revolution. How does this relate? If we look closely at our days there is much waste, but unfortunately outward appearance can be misleading. Chatting at the water cooler or even staring in the sky thinking can have huge value, while typing away frantically at the computer creating time bombs in code is far worse than sleeping on the job. Tools like rescuetime.com and value stream mapping help us identify where we waste time, and have helped me improve effectiveness. The results are substantial if we focus on value delivered and eliminate waste. There IS value (ROE) in giving out free replacement parts, special delivery service, and even the water cooler, it just takes time to justify. The question is if there is an ROI for computing the ROI?

By: sqlrockstar

sqlrockstar — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:16:45 +0000

In reply to Michael O’Neal.

Michael,

That’s a great story. I’m not sure it can be measured, but I know that someone out there would certainly try to measure it in terms of money somehow. For example, perhaps they would measure it in terms of the overall money you have spent with them.

What they can’t measure accurately is your reach, or influence, over others. When you share this story it makes others think about Randalls in a positive light, to the point they would go shop there. But no one will ever know that those dollars are tied to you indirectly, so they might say “hey, we only got $100 from them, so hand delivering wasn’t worth the effort”.

It’s a shame, I think, that so many decisions are tied to money and not an experience.

By: Michael O'Neal

Michael O'Neal — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:49:00 +0000

This is an excellent point and seems like a good place to share a similar story. Several years ago, my wife went to a local Randall’s grocery store and ordered some prepared food to go before doing the regular grocery shopping. After finishing her shopping, she came back to pick it up at which point the person behind the counter said they would start it and it would be 20 minutes. Understandably peeved, she found the manager and told him her story before leaving. His response? He got our address from her and hand delivered it himself with a big apology. He turned a potentially bad experience into a great one and we became customers for life and still tell the story many years later. This is actually still true despite the chain being sold to Safeway who has mostly eradicated all the things that made Randall’s special. After having moved twice, we still find the nearest one and go there. We still talk about it. How do you measure the value of that?