Monday, October 12, 2009

ROI: Return on Insight


Last week I met a fellow who championed the use of ROI. No, not return on investment. His ROI metric is one that his firm uses in its consulting work with clients — return on insight. He explained how his firm delivers what all consulting firms should deliver: value-generating insights to its clients. I had never heard that usage of ROI before.

Value-generating insights. That's what this blog, "Boards At Their Best," endeavors to deliver. Today marks its first anniversary.

I started this blog as an academic exercise. A year ago I was teaching a course in "Fundamentals of Public Relations Writing" at Temple University, my alma mater. For a final paper, I intended to give the class the assignment to start a blog. If I wanted each of them to become bloggers so as to be adept at this important capability for a PR practitioner, I figured I better become a blogger myself to test the doability of the assignment. If I could create a blog, then anyone could do it, certainly twentysomethings with a lot higher comfort level with technology and social media.

The title of the blog was chosen with care, as was the subtitle: "Insights on Leadership and Corporate Governance." I try to make sure each posting has a nugget of distinctive advice or perspective that you won't find in the mainstream media or elsewhere in the blogosphere. That's why I like that ROI metric — return on insight. I invite and encourage you to return here often over the next 12 months of postings to see how you would score its ROI.