Philosopher Geek

The idea of a management dashboard is a useful metaphor.  A dashboard gives you a quick overview of your car’s systems. It alerts you to areas that might need your attention. A management “dashboard” should also give you a quick overview of the enterprise and alert you to areas that might need attention.

It was the steering wheel that did it for me. I have visions of the CEO making car noises (like a five year-old) as he looks at the screen, begging the senior accountant for “just five more minutes.”  I wonder if they used something like this to monitor all those CDO, CDS, and MBS instruments. It would explain a lot.
[On a previous assignment we called our "dashboard" a "cockpit." Partly because it contained some aircraft style dials, but mostly because it sounded cooler.  We did not include pictures of a joystick or ejector seat.]

In case the linked site is not available, here is a copy of the dashboard image.