Baseline
What was measured before the work started, with the sources and the assumptions used.
Case Studies
The method's measured record, and the standard a Kihon case meets.
ISEOR's published results, as printed at the source, and what a case states before it is published here. Each is read against where it started, its limits beside the outcome.
What it has produced
Four results from ISEOR's record.
The method Kihon applies has been measured in the field since 1978. These are ISEOR's published results, reproduced with the limits the source itself states.
- 01
€20,000 to €70,000 per person per year
Reduction in hidden costs, reconverted into savings and revenue growth, measured across all evaluated pilot actions. ISEOR does not say over what period or in what kind of organisation, so it reads as a spread across cases rather than a promise for any one of them.
- 02
€11,700 per person per year
A small team inside a larger pilot action, valued across three indicators: absenteeism reduced to a 3% sickness rate (€800), scrap and defect rates halved (€3,200), and direct productivity up 16.2% (€7,700). Delivery time fell by two and a half weeks, which the source leaves unvalued.
- 03
2,125+ organisations, 72 sectors, 46 countries
The field record the research has built up since 1978, in organisations from 4 to 30,000 people.
- 04
At least half is revenue that never arrived
ISEOR's database shows that lost revenue makes up at least half of the hidden costs measured in companies, so recovering them means above all selling more, not only spending less. ISEOR has applied the method to commercial teams: its 2016 colloquium on selling, "everyone sells", published cases from Manpower Belgium-Luxembourg, Nutrisens, SLB Médical, Brioche Pasquier and the IT services firm Deuzzi.
Savall and Zardet, Renouveau du contrôle de gestion, p. 18 → Innovation commerciale, EMS 2017 →
What these figures are, and are not: ISEOR's measurements across four decades of intervention research. ISEOR notes on the same page that its published results understate the effect, given the time limits of the evaluations. A B2B company arrives at its own number the same way these did, through the fieldwork that establishes it. View the ISEOR source →
How a case comes to be
From the first measurement to a signed result.
A case is not written after the work; it is set up on the first day of it. The number it ends with is read against the number the Diagnosis recorded, in the same records, by the same method.
- Weeks 1 to 6
- Week 8
- Each fix
- Check dates
- After the work
- Publication
The publication standard
Six things a case states before it is published.
All six, or the case stays unpublished. Where it started, how long it was watched and what it cannot show count as much as the result.
Diagnosed condition
The recurring problem the diagnostic found, and how other explanations were tested.
Intervention
What was changed, including what did not work.
Measured outcome
What changed against where it started, with measured results kept apart from estimates, forecasts or interpretation.
Observation period
How long the change was observed, and whether it held after the work ended.
Limitations
What the case cannot establish, where uncertainty remains, and what the client authorised. Published beside the outcome, not beneath it.
Kihon's own cases: published with the company named, its own before-and-after numbers, and the company's sign-off on the text.
FAQ
Case Studies FAQs.
Why is there no client case on this page?
A case goes up when it has cleared the standard: a measured starting point, a stated period, its limits and the company's consent to publish. The page carries the method's record, with every figure attributed.
Are the figures on this page Kihon's results?
No. They are ISEOR's published figures, attributed and dated. A Kihon figure appears here only inside a case that meets the standard above.
How is the starting point measured?
In the Diagnosis: the leak priced from the company's own records and rates, with its period and its assumptions written down before anything changes. The same measure is read again at the check date.
Will a case name the company?
Only with the company's signed authorisation, and only what it authorised. The agreement to publish is signed before the work starts, and the company reviews the case before it goes out.
Get started
What would this look like for your company?
A Diagnosis sets the starting point a case would later be measured against. Where the evidence will not reach a finding, that is said before any proposal.