Profit. Sales conversion ratio. Turnover. Are all Key Performance Indicators, right? Wrong.
Those things are the results of past actions. A proper KPI measures the action itself.
Your business rests on sensitive foundations – on a collection of activities, which facilitate success and growth. If you don’t know what they are, you risk losing everything. It is your profound responsibility to identify those sensitive areas and focus your efforts on securing them.
This is difficult, naturally. Your days are so full of activity that finding time for productive scrutiny and appraisal is one challenge among many. And yet, when it comes to empowering people to do their best work, the importance of tackling that challenge increases dramatically.
The solution? Reports. Not the cobbled together, data-saturated kind which mar so many of our meeting rooms, but clear, simple snapshots which tell you exactly where you are. Something you can confidently bring to the table and explain with ease.
With a deep and comprehensive analysis of every inch of your operation we’ll help you discover your sensitive areas and track them with powerful KPIs. We’ll simplify your reports and teach everyone how to run a brisk, valuable management meeting with the resulting knowledge. And we won’t go home until everyone is confident in their ability to get it done.
You’ll be able to empower your team with focused targets, enabling them to do what they do best with minimal interruption. They can take care of business and you can take care of its future.
Reporting Q&A
A: This is where we can help. We start with our unique discovery and due diligence process and ask you a series of questions, many of which you might never have considered. This will help us to understand how we can help you reach your planned destination and the resources which you will require, then create customised KPI reporting solutions to measure progress along that journey.
A: We can help you uncover where the hidden treasure lies within your business and work with you to devise a plan to make it happen. However, in doing so we take into action your personal motivations for your business and it can often turn out that we can help you re-align your processes and re-train your people to help you achive results which you may never have thought possible.
A: You can’t, however this is where we can help. We start with our unique discovery and due diligence process and ask you a series of questions many of which you might never have considered. This will help us to understand how we can help you reach your planned destination and the resources which you will require, then create customised KPI reporting solutions to measure progress along that journey.
A: To ensure that they are measuring the right things. This will mean that they are managing the right things and therefore doing the right things.
A: Speak to us. KPIs should measure processes and people. Implementation of change to processes and people requires skilled communication, explanation and training to be successful.
A: They must be the areas your business is most sensitive to. We explain this in the article. You can identify this with business and financial modelling and simulation. Please make a list of what you do measure - then give us a call!
A: Because it is a result, a key performance measure, not a key performance indicator. It is too much of an aggregation of measures to be something that you can control directly.
For instance profit is the end product of your sales process and you must measure your achieved profit v target. By definition profit is a Key Performance Measure (KPM).
Your sales process should have a multipart, structured process, your KPIs must measure the conversion ratios between each step to identify where any attrition has taken place. Success often comes from measuring what you did not sell and why. Also as part of your sales KPIs you must measure profit per unit sold because you could sell lots of units but achieve a lower than targeted profit per unit.
Profit is a KPM, profit per unit sold is a KPI.
A: Read about building an intelligent business model with built in simulation and using Power BI on our Business and Financial Modelling page. This is the best way to highlight the sensitive areas. Then give us a call.
A: It should take around 10 minutes a day. Given that they signpost the actions that need to be taken to keep the business on track, how can that be time wasted?
- KPI Reports must be quick, accurate and easy to use
- They must be departmental and produced daily or at worst weekly with running monthly totals
- Managers must be trained to deliver weekly KPI reports to directors - in a maximum of 10 minutes
- The reports will identify if and when monthly targets are going to be missed as early as the 2nd day - and show what must be done to correct it
- They must include elements which highlight where individuals need specific retraining
- They must identify what you have not accomplished - and show why
- They identify how to get back on track when things go wrong
- At worst they will be emailed to decision makers in advance of the weekly management KPI meeting
- At best they will be produced in a cloud based reporting system
- Also read the KPI section on the Business & Financial Modelling page
- Business and Financial Modelling is a critical part of measuring and identifying the sensitivities that will drive the selection of your KPIs
- Please read the KPI section on the Business & Financial Modelling page and then contact us
- We also recommend that you read our extensive article which delivers valuable and challenging content throughout and finishes with a simple solution to a complex issue.
If you no longer want to accept excuses for failure to hit targets - we can help
Our Power KPI reporting solutions make you and your people aware of what is or is not happening in your business. They help you to understand how information, events and your team's own actions will impact goals and objectives.
So you never lose situational awareness - again.
A: Here is a short extract from a long list of benefits:
- What gets measured, gets managed, gets done
- Measure the right things, manage the right things, do the right things
- Focuses department managers on achieving or exceeding minimum performance standards
- As early as the first or second day of the month, show what must be changed to ensure targets are met
- No more internal insanity from repeating the same actions but expecting a different result
- Power KPI Reporting translates complex measurs into simple indicators that allow decision makers to take action
Power BI is a suite of powerful business analytics tools, developed by Microsoft, that can be programmed to automatically combine and analyse many sources of data to put a "thumbprint" on the business and share insights with decision makers.
A: PowerBI dashboards provide a 360 degree view of a business that shows their most important metrics in one place. There are many additional benefits, including real time updates. availability across all devices, and allowing users to click to explore the levels of information behind the dashboard. Instant, easy and intuitive.
Power BI dashboards are the vital end product for the sensitivities revealed by the Business & Financial Modelling process.
A: Reporting tools based on PowerBI allow the integration and manipulation of data from multiple sources all combined into powerful and intuitive reporting across multiple devices.
Want to learn more? Download our useful Guide outlining the best practices, guidelines and requirements for building forecast models. Alternatively, contact us to discuss how we could help you in this process.