Year to date (YTD), Year over year (YOY), QTD (quarter to date), this list goes on and on. These should be very familiar. We love to compare then to now - and now to then. It is comforting to find those leading and lagging indicators. It also greatly helps with many facets of business forecasting. Can what happened before, based on what is happening now, give us some indication as to what will happen in the future? Or, should we at least be where we were at this time last year? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.
However, a major success last year equals a very difficult compare this year. A major failure last year equals a very easy compare this year. Based on this, before you react to the compare, compare what you are measuring to what must happen to reach your goal/objective. Sometimes things are measured (and subsequently compared) because they are easy to measure - not because they are most indicative to what gives you the best measures to provide those accurate leading/lagging indicators.
Question the compare at times. When finally you do find those perfect leading/lagging indicators, and then those compares do always give clear insight into business health forward and backward looking; when this happens, there is no comparison.
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