Killer Analytics: Top 20 Metrics Missing from your Balance Sheet

Chapter 14

The American Index

WHY AN ORGANIZATION MIGHT TRACK THIS

Questions Answered

• Are we growing jobs for Americans?
• Are we paying our fair share of taxes?
• Are we favoring U.S. suppliers and partners?
• Are we helping to contribute to a more prosperous economy?
• Are we minimizing the use of materials and supplies manufactured elsewhere?
• Are we supporting businesses in countries that are unfriendly to the United States?
• Are we supporting education and training to help create a more skilled workforce for the future?
• Do our products or services help improve quality of life or degrade it?
• Do we thoroughly research possible negative side effects of our products and services?
• Are we really filling a need?

Why Is This Information Important?

This last recession impacted just about everyone in the country and changed our values and consciousness. When the economy was booming, companies made more and more profits by selling people stuff they didn’t need, continually driving down the cost of products by using foreign manufacturers and raw materials produced elsewhere, taking major risks in order to produce major profits, and using technology wherever possible to replace employees. Many companies created a mostly part-time workforce so they would not have to pay benefits and used a lot of contract labor so they could expand and shrink the workforce at whim and save on payroll taxes. Life was good. We were all house rich, there was plenty of work. And then it all came crashing down. There ...