What is better anyway?

For world-class Olympic athletes better is faster, higher, stronger. Olympic events are carefully defined and competitors are measured in hundredths and thousandths of a second or an inch.

Service has become a world-class event. Two-thirds of the global economy (>80% of the U.S.) has migrated from a manufacturing base to service. That makes service serious business and, in essence, a world-class event.

Athletes competing at the highest levels train vigorously. They meticulously track performance, exercise great discipline, utilize technology and employ specialized resources to improve performance. World-class athletes recognize the value of performance feedback and understand the importance of common standards of performance measurement.

Is there something to be learned from this?

There certainly is. In business, the consumer is the Olympic committee. Consumers define the events and judge the results. Most industries, especially manufacturing and technology, have long embraced faster, higher, stronger concepts and the metrics that go with them. Common standards have become pretty common.

In the service sector and especially in real estate services, it's more common for the service provider or each organization to define the event, decide what to measure, and to develop its own measurement standards. It's convenient that way.

But the service provider doesn't make the rules in today's economy. The consumer does. World-class competitors in business today are totally focused on consumer-defined events and are passionate about measuring their performance results with common standards and common metrics. And the evidence is clear that progress follows process.