I recently came across Jordan Teo’s response to Jay Blocks blog post “Find a dozen ways to ask: How can we do this better”. 
While Jordan makes a good point about using the value proposition of a company and comparing that to the company’s product as a good way to assess the R&D department of a company, it is insufficient to judge the performance of the company as a whole.
“How can we do this better” to me, is no longer singular in nature to a product. In fact it encompasses all the aspects of a company; its employee culture, its ethical standpoints in conducting business and the company’s vision (apart from gaining profit).
A good way to judge performance and better understand the intricacies of ones work environment, is to figure out employee loyalty. Are your people passionate about their job, do they look forward to challenges posed at the company and do they have a sense of belonging attributed to their own personal relationship with the firm. This is a pretty vast segment to look into, emotions like loyalty can’t be measured, but they can be induced. Creating a competitive environment is important, but ensuring that the work space is also comfortable for those who inhabit it is imperative. A happy Employee = A happy Customer.
Secondly, a company should look into their income statements, because income statements give a broad view into a company’s overall growth and most importantly can act as a basis of comparison, where a company can check their profitability over certain time periods.
And lastly, as Jordan said, the product. At the end of the day a company will only exist if its meeting a need in the market that hasn’t been addressed, and it will only make a profit over this, if the product exhausts this demand in a unique and efficient fashion.
