A comprehensive picture
By striking a balance in its performance measurement system, a company compiles a more complete picture of how it's doing. This comprehensive picture enables executives and managers to learn from mistakes, constantly improve, and make the smartest possible decisions.
Indeed, some managers draw an analogy between effective performance measurement and the operation of an airplane: To fly a plane, a pilot must look at many instruments—airspeed indicator, fuel gauge, altitude indicator, GPS map, and so forth—rather than rely on a single instrument that provides just one piece of information. Similarly, organizations seeking to navigate through a complex environment need a range of "instruments" to evaluate how they're doing. Effective performance measurement provides that comprehensive range of information with which a company can gauge its performance.