BCG Henderson Institute

The Measure of Progress with Diane Coyle

"We need to think more in terms of understanding time. On the firm side, productivity improvements [usually mean] speeding up processes. […] For consumers, […] our budget is 24 hours, which we use on leisure, paid and unpaid work, consumption, services. Time could [be] the basis of a new accounting framework for economic value."

In The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, Dame Diane Coyle argues that traditional measures like GDP no longer capture economic realities.

Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She is also the director of the Productivity Institute, a fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and a member of the UK’s Competition Commission. Drawing on her deep expertise, she proposes an alternative framework for measuring productivity that enables better policymaking.

In her conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses the shortcomings of GDP—such as a lack of accounting for immaterial goods or natural capital, alternative measures of progress, and how corporate leaders should rethink their approach to measurement.

Key topics discussed: 

[01:32] The shortcomings of GDP as a measure of productivity
[09:14] The issues of inflated GDP statements
[11:12] Alternative measures of productivity and progress
[13:47] A time-based approach to measuring productivity
[16:39] How productivity measurement works in practice
[18:57] Implications for corporate leaders

Additional inspirations from Diane Coyle:

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