Time is the truth of the business world. Time is our only truly scarce resource. Therefore it is a “currency” more precious than gold. A person’s life is actually a countdown. If you study the legal sanctions of human society you will find that no matter which race which country whether they start with fines corporal punishment or other means they will eventually land their social hierarchy punishment means on “time”: depriving criminals of their free time or even life. This is because time is the fairest means for everyone.
Time combines “fairness and justice” and can be revealed very early making it the best ruler for measuring value. Its only drawback is that its forms of expression are too diverse. In “life value” it manifests as an extension of life. In “psychological value” it usually manifests as an occupation of user time. And in the special case of the above two values: “economic value” it often manifests as an increase in efficiency that is saving time. Essentially this saved time allows humans to do what they want to do such as communicating with their loved ones through WeChat. They actually ultimately obtained “psychological value.”
Not only may the time performance of the three values be different but when combined with different industries different companies and different products these indicators are even more diverse. We now have some special methods to find this “OMTM” such as combining the “AARRR” and “Cohort Analysis” methods to determine possible “OMTM.” This work is hard and time-consuming but it’s worth it. Once you find such a “OMTM” you are like Alibaba who has obtained the password to the treasure cave. The good news is that we can first lock in time-related indicators which can help us clarify the direction of search more quickly.
But note that the “OMTM” helps us qualitatively. It’s not quantitative data thinking. It lets us know if our innovation direction is correct or not. Or to put it in terms of “right-brain thinking” whether our innovation “story” is good or not whether others understand it or are moved by it. Eric Ries founder of “Lean Startup” once said: “Data is also human.”
In traditional organizations there are actually also “OMTM” which are financial indicators. But now we know that financial indicators are lagging indicators. When we use traditional financial means our decision-making will inevitably eventually lean towards “sustaining innovation.” Therefore for “The Right-Brained Organization” we need a new value accounting system that focuses on value and can discover value in advance. This new value “accounting” system will affect our organizational structure and business processes thereby promoting changes in employee innovation behavior and allowing “disruptive innovation” to emerge like spring buds.