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If Enron had to report the lifetime value of its cusomer base on a quarterly basis, could it have misled so many people for so long? I don't think so. The kind of detailed measurement discussed in our Return On Customer newsletter this month is not only effective as a measurement and accounting tool, it's necessary as a backstop against corporate greed and corruption. A company that can measure the result of its short-term and long-term customer strategy is worthy of investor interest. A company that expresses a strategic interest in how customer value is being measured along with standard quarterly revenue and profit is a company aligned with customer advocacy. The more tricky and complex accounting and measurement methods become, the more suspicious I get about whether the company behind them is in this for the customer, or in it for the stock options.