Strategic management by business metrics : An application of combinatory metrics

Applications of comprehensive Quality Function Deployment (QFD) – or QFD in the broad sense – to strategic management have been known for some time, and its results have been discussed within the international community of QFD specialists. It is therefore tempting to investigate the contribution of combinatory metrics to strategy deployment. Combinatory metrics are constructed upon the capability of QFD to evaluate the deployment topics’ contribution to customers’ needs. They provide a practical means to explain business strategy by “local” metrics that are easily understood and applied by responsible people. Combinatory metrics also point to foundations of QFD that explain how to apply QFD for very complicated environments. This foundation provides techniques and means to work with various influencing factors and conflicting topics. This paper explains the theory as needed for strategy deployment and presents a sample case from a software company.