It's that time of year when folks begin to think about things they want to change come the new year.It occurred to me that wisdom from one of the most renowned and powerful Jedi Masters, Yoda, might serve us well. After all, he was known for his legendary wisdom and...

When I was 15 I met  Ian Harvey when I joined the Order of DeMolay (a Masonic-sponsored group for young men). We became friends and remained very good friends until his death from cancer, five years ago. Ian was Jewish, and he said how he really liked it when...

We are very excited about a new service TSG announced last week: "Software Certification." While the type of work isn't new for us, as we've reviewed many firms' performance systems for close to 20 years, the formalizing of it is. We provide an independent review of a...

One of our clients sent us a note recently, which stated that one of their clients told them there is a "standard to report alternative investments as net-of-fee, and to combine these with gross-of-fee returns." This "standard" apparently is not in writing, so perhaps...

My son, Douglas, gave me Rules of Civility by Amor Towles for my birthday. And while I don't often read novels, the review in the WSJ painted it as a book I should read (it likened it to The Great Gatsby, and after finishing it I can see why). Given that performance...

When I was an undergrad math major at Temple University, roughly 40 years ago, a professor, who was teaching a Numbers Theory course, mentioned that there were three things mathematicians should always remember: the Pythagorean Theorem, Fermat's Last Equation, and he...

I'm sitting in the Lufthansa business class lounge, preparing to return home, after spending a few days in Budapest, Hungary, where we held our 51st meeting of The Performance Measurement Forum. The reading material includes the WSJ's European edition weekend edition,...

Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar frequently interjects jokes into his presentations. One deals with a Roman Catholic girl who was asked by her Baptist boyfriend to marry him. This occurred many years ago, when such “mixed marriages” were often frowned upon. When the...

Dippin' Dots' claim of being the "ice cream of the future" appears to have been a bit aggressive, as it declared for bankruptcy.Granted, this bold statement was merely their tag line, and perhaps some could foresee ice cream actually universally becoming like their...

A client recently asked about the appropriateness of reporting volatility and tracking error, for one and three month time periods, based on daily values. In addition, whether the results should be annualized. He was curious about the "best practices" for reporting...