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Will You Add? - Do Your Organisation's Measurements Support Its Goals?
By now hopefully most managers and professional know that involving the right people in change initiatives is a key factor that will impact success. Involving those who work in the processes that will be impacted is crucial, as they will ultimately be responsible for carrying out the change on a day-to-day basis.However, how can we make sure we select the right people from the process? One way to look at it is to consider the model presented by Everett Rogers in his book “Diffusion of Innovations.”Consider the normal distribution, a bell-shaped curve that in this case represents variation in human preferences. At one end of the distribution are what Rogers calls the Innovators and Early Adopters, at the other end are the Late Adopters and Laggards, and in the middle is the Majority. We usually would expect about 2/3rds of people to fall
Get a Balanced View with a Family of Measures: There is an African proverb which says that you cannot watch a dancing masquerade from one spot. A family of measures reflecting the various areas of organisational performance should be chosen. The balanced scorecard approach advocates measures to track financial performance, customers, internal
The best you can do when dealing with customers in your business is to always keep in your mind how you would want to be treated if you had the same situation or if you were going into someone else's business and buying from them or had an issue with product or services.I have had 18 years in business dealing with people on a personal basis and the best thing you can do if you get into a sticky situation is to try and work things out and make the customer happy as long as its nothing totally unreasonable, even if you end up not making money on this one situation for instance, It will end up paying off for you in the end in other ways.If your customer emails you with questions always try to reply as soon as possible, even if you are unsure of the answer immediately try to reply to acknowledge the message and then find the answer and most imp
In very general terms, organisations process inputs received from resources into outputs delivered to their stakeholders. For business concerns the inputs are capital, labour, materials and technology. These are converted into products and services for customers and financial returns for investors and other financial stakeholders. Visit the url below for illustration.
http://www.leapfrogalliance.com/ezgrphx/biz.jpg
Systematically Decide What to Measure: The most obvious source of organisational performance measures are the stakeholders.
In staking out a position in the marketplace, responding to competition and the environment, the organisation crafts and attempts to implement a strategy. Thus organisational strategy, missions and goals are another source of performance measures.
The procedure is to determine the critical business issues that are relevant to the satisfaction of stakeholder needs or successful strategy implementation. For these business issues determine the critical success factors. Finally metrics are chosen to measure these factors.
Example:
A mechanic workshop might recognise customer service as a critical business issue. The critical success factors required for this business issue might include prompt attention, accurate diagnosis and repair and proactive service. Specific measures for accurate diagnosis and repair might include first pass yield (i.e. percentage of vehicles diagnosed and repaired "first time right" as opposed to those that have to be returned a second time).
Measures so derived are results based and can be used to report performance, align effort and manage accountabilities.
Internally, the business is organised by function but, as we have repeatedly stressed, carries out the conversion of inputs to outputs (i.e. creates value) through business processes. Since the effectiveness of the processes determine all future results, measures of process effectiveness are required.
Further leverage over future results can be gained by managing organisational capabilities since they determine the effectiveness of all future processes in the organisation. To do this requires that measures of these capabilities are tracked.
Example:
An entrepreneurial business school regarded as its main result measures the number of its graduates leaving school with a viable business plan and the number that established businesses that survived three years or more. For process measures, the number of open ended case studies solved, number of hours spent on interactive business simulations and number of internships were chosen. Capability measures included the number of active successful entrepreneurs, and board members on the faculty, and the number of businesses with which the school had a close relationship.
Visit the url below to see the image illustrating leverage.
http://www.leapfrogalliance.com/ezgrphx/lev.jpg
Lastly, the organisation must maintain a certain level of environmental awareness to avoid surprise changes that may result in significant negative impacts, or in missed opportunities.
Example:
A bottle making company supplying the brewing and soft drinks sector with returnable packaging materials had been lulled into a false sense of security by consistently good financial results and a high customer satisfaction rating. It came as a shock to the CEO when demand flattened and then declined. If they had had measures for monitoring the external environment they would have noted two worrisome trends that converged to squeeze demand. (A.)The near total adoption among their customers of initiatives like lean, six sigma and TPM that drastically reduced breakages, and (B.) The growing preference for cans and cartons to bottles among their major customers.
Get a Balanced View with a Family of Measures: There is an African proverb which says that you cannot watch a dancing masquerade from one spot. A family of measures reflecting the various areas of organisational performance should be chosen. The balanced scorecard approach advocates measures to track financial performance, customers, internal o
When you're looking for a job there's always going to be a lot of questions to ask. Whether you are starting out or you have experience in the job market you always have questions that come up and need answers. In this two-part article we'll take a look at several questions that have been asked and answered them for you.Q. How long should my resume be?A. Depending on your experience you would typically want to stick to a one page resume. If you have a lot of experience and several different jobs this may not be possible. But to make it as easy as possible for the person viewing the resume to see your skills and what you've accomplished you want to put it on one page so they don't have to flip or staple.Q. What should I wear to my interviews?A. For any interview you should always be appropriate
The procedure is to determine the critical business issues that are relevant to the satisfaction of stakeholder needs or successful strategy implementation. For these business issues determine the critical success factors. Finally metrics are chosen to measure these factors.
Example:
A mechanic workshop might recognise customer service as a critical business issue. The critical success factors required for this business issue might include prompt attention, accurate diagnosis and repair and proactive service. Specific measures for accurate diagnosis and repair might include first pass yield (i.e. percentage of vehicles diagnosed and repaired "first time right" as opposed to those that have to be returned a second time).
Measures so derived are results based and can be used to report performance, align effort and manage accountabilities.
Internally, the business is organised by function but, as we have repeatedly stressed, carries out the conversion of inputs to outputs (i.e. creates value) through business processes. Since the effectiveness of the processes determine all future results, measures of process effectiveness are required.
Further leverage over future results can be gained by managing organisational capabilities since they determine the effectiveness of all future processes in the organisation. To do this requires that measures of these capabilities are tracked.
Example:
An entrepreneurial business school regarded as its main result measures the number of its graduates leaving school with a viable business plan and the number that established businesses that survived three years or more. For process measures, the number of open ended case studies solved, number of hours spent on interactive business simulations and number of internships were chosen. Capability measures included the number of active successful entrepreneurs, and board members on the faculty, and the number of businesses with which the school had a close relationship.
Visit the url below to see the image illustrating leverage.
http://www.leapfrogalliance.com/ezgrphx/lev.jpg
Lastly, the organisation must maintain a certain level of environmental awareness to avoid surprise changes that may result in significant negative impacts, or in missed opportunities.
Example:
A bottle making company supplying the brewing and soft drinks sector with returnable packaging materials had been lulled into a false sense of security by consistently good financial results and a high customer satisfaction rating. It came as a shock to the CEO when demand flattened and then declined. If they had had measures for monitoring the external environment they would have noted two worrisome trends that converged to squeeze demand. (A.)The near total adoption among their customers of initiatives like lean, six sigma and TPM that drastically reduced breakages, and (B.) The growing preference for cans and cartons to bottles among their major customers.
Get a Balanced View with a Family of Measures: There is an African proverb which says that you cannot watch a dancing masquerade from one spot. A family of measures reflecting the various areas of organisational performance should be chosen. The balanced scorecard approach advocates measures to track financial performance, customers, internal
For the past ten-months, I tried every drug from the popular Vioxx, Celebrex and Aleve, to the long-standing Percocet, Ibruprofen 800, with some other fabulous ones like Fexeril, Ulltram, Naproxyn, and Antevert. (And, this is my short list).I hate drugs and I try very hard to keep them out of my body. For example, for five years I was either pregnant or nursing so I knew the whole “What class is this drug in?” drill.Unfortunately, there’s a time and place for everything. To help manage my physical and “mental” pain, I had to wean my baby right after my car accident, so I can try some of these "Wonder Drugs".[Note: My doctors prefer that I acknowledge my “neurological” pain. I developed an inner ear disorder (benign vertigo and post concussive syndrome) due to whipping my head around. I do not have any “mental” problems. I guess they'
Internally, the business is organised by function but, as we have repeatedly stressed, carries out the conversion of inputs to outputs (i.e. creates value) through business processes. Since the effectiveness of the processes determine all future results, measures of process effectiveness are required.
Further leverage over future results can be gained by managing organisational capabilities since they determine the effectiveness of all future processes in the organisation. To do this requires that measures of these capabilities are tracked.
Example:
An entrepreneurial business school regarded as its main result measures the number of its graduates leaving school with a viable business plan and the number that established businesses that survived three years or more. For process measures, the number of open ended case studies solved, number of hours spent on interactive business simulations and number of internships were chosen. Capability measures included the number of active successful entrepreneurs, and board members on the faculty, and the number of businesses with which the school had a close relationship.
Visit the url below to see the image illustrating leverage.
http://www.leapfrogalliance.com/ezgrphx/lev.jpg
Lastly, the organisation must maintain a certain level of environmental awareness to avoid surprise changes that may result in significant negative impacts, or in missed opportunities.
Example:
A bottle making company supplying the brewing and soft drinks sector with returnable packaging materials had been lulled into a false sense of security by consistently good financial results and a high customer satisfaction rating. It came as a shock to the CEO when demand flattened and then declined. If they had had measures for monitoring the external environment they would have noted two worrisome trends that converged to squeeze demand. (A.)The near total adoption among their customers of initiatives like lean, six sigma and TPM that drastically reduced breakages, and (B.) The growing preference for cans and cartons to bottles among their major customers.
Get a Balanced View with a Family of Measures: There is an African proverb which says that you cannot watch a dancing masquerade from one spot. A family of measures reflecting the various areas of organisational performance should be chosen. The balanced scorecard approach advocates measures to track financial performance, customers, internal
Marketing shouldn’t be limited to advertising companies. Finding a job or enhancing your current position requires good self-marketing skills. What is self-marketing? Basically, self-marketing is communicating your benefits to potential or current employers. Think of yourself as a “product” and explain to employers what differentiates you from other “products.”Why is self-marketing important? Landing a job or improving your current position requires effectively selling your skills, abilities, and knowledge to employers. How do you market yourself? Self-marketing can be accomplished through networking, resumes, interviews, and salary negotiation.Reports estimate that as many as 85% of jobs aren’t advertised. Networking is one way to get at the “hidden job market” – those unadvertised jobs. Tell everyone you know that you are looking for a j
http://www.leapfrogalliance.com/ezgrphx/lev.jpg
Lastly, the organisation must maintain a certain level of environmental awareness to avoid surprise changes that may result in significant negative impacts, or in missed opportunities.
Example:
A bottle making company supplying the brewing and soft drinks sector with returnable packaging materials had been lulled into a false sense of security by consistently good financial results and a high customer satisfaction rating. It came as a shock to the CEO when demand flattened and then declined. If they had had measures for monitoring the external environment they would have noted two worrisome trends that converged to squeeze demand. (A.)The near total adoption among their customers of initiatives like lean, six sigma and TPM that drastically reduced breakages, and (B.) The growing preference for cans and cartons to bottles among their major customers.
Get a Balanced View with a Family of Measures: There is an African proverb which says that you cannot watch a dancing masquerade from one spot. A family of measures reflecting the various areas of organisational performance should be chosen. The balanced scorecard approach advocates measures to track financial performance, customers, internal
Are you listening to that little voice in your head telling you how much you dislike your job? If not, you may become angry with those around you, when in fact, you'll be angry at yourself for failing to taking the necessary steps to change your career -- or job within the same industry. Career change is not always easy. For some, the simple task of deciding what to do is often the hardest part. For others who know what they want to do, they often feel it will take too long to achieve their career goals when there are bills to pay.It is even more difficult when those around us do not understand our "crazy ideas" because they are too practical to make sacrifices for the sake of happiness. So what should you do to steer your career in the right direction without upsetting the family and draining your bank account? Here are a few suggestions to
Get a Balanced View with a Family of Measures: There is an African proverb which says that you cannot watch a dancing masquerade from one spot. A family of measures reflecting the various areas of organisational performance should be chosen. The balanced scorecard approach advocates measures to track financial performance, customers, internal operations and learning and growth. For each area, measures that drive present performance should be balanced with those to guarantee future results.
Achieve Vertical Alignment with Measurement Hierarchies: The concept of vertical alignment means that employees at different levels in the organisation are driven towards the same goals. For example, a measurement system which holds a production supervisor accountable for quality while his boss is rated only on production volume is not aligned and will drive inconsistent performance. In order for performance measures to be vertically aligned from the level of individual jobs to the organisational level, different degrees of detail of a particular measure of performance must be made available at different levels of the organisation. For instance a hotel chain will have measure of customer satisfaction for each hotel, with results rolled up and summarised for the chain. It must be possible for someone at a higher level to drill down to view details, otherwise the measures will not be actionable. Visit the url below to see the illustration of a hierarchy of measures.
http://www.leapfrogalliance.com/ezgrphx/hier.jpg
Comparative Measures:
Measures as a means of tracking performance, diagnosing performance problems or decision making can only be meaningful in the context of relevant references and comparatives.
Baseline measures refer to the starting point. These are the values of the variables at the point of setting up the system, at the beginning of an improvement project or some similar event.
Trending measures show the chosen variable as a time series. This makes it easy to see the direction - improving, worsening or stagnant.
Control measures, generally used in combination with trending measures show maximum and minimum allowable values for the performance variable.
All the above are internal comparatives.
External comparatives might involve comparing your performance with competitors, industry standards or theoretical benchmarks.
In Summary:
Effective performance metrics must be derived from critical business issues and their success factors.
A balanced set of metrics which together form a family of measure must be chosen to reflect the multidimensional nature the business.
The external environment must be tracked even if it does not currently affect the organisation's performance
Achieve vertical alignment by creating a hierarchy of performance metrics
Make use of comparatives to put your measures in context
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