It is a real danger for companies to drive decisions based on historical, not contemporary, data. Information Must Be Comparative Facts alone can end up as a collection of noise, not a symphony of findings. Risk managers can turn data into information by relating it to their environment. Having metrics will not be helpful if information choices are limited and not comparable. In today s world however, there are many choices and results can change dramatically by rearranging variables.
Good metrics demonstrate the comparison between years, operating units, or alternatives.
They provide trend and benchmark data to identify variances. When measuring any information, it is easy to pick a variable that is available but it may be incomplete. For instance, if a business measures miles per gallon in isolation, it may miss other variables that contribute to cost and productivity such as load size, routes, or even time of day. This approach could lead to false conclusions. Risk managers want to always be measuring variables that will drive improved performance.