Voices on ROI

Some interesting thoughts, points of view on ROI, picked up from various articles, posts, comments:

"...ROI is not a crystal ball, a guarantee of success, or a ticket to a promotion. It is just a tool for a vendor or training manager to show that they have rationally and objectively considered the organizational benefits and costs of what they are proposing. And it is a test of whether the vendor or manager understands what the organization truly values" - William Horton, Horton Consulting

"...Consider a jazz band. People swoon to the sound of the mellow tunes belted out by the saxophone player. They hardly pay attention to the drummer. The drummer is context, while the saxophone player is content. If the band were to do an ROI analysis on each instrument, however, perhaps they would eliminate the high expense of the drummer and “invest” in two more saxophone players. How much more successful would the band be with three saxophone players and no drummer? Not much actually, because while context does not get the marquee status, there is no marquee without it." - Bob Dust in CLO

"...Making sound decisions is the rationale for calculating ROI. Often precision is not required. The back of an envelope will do." - Jay Cross, Internet Time