Let's start with a list of our typical wishes:
- If only we could measure what's important If only we had complete information about our customers and their historical purchases If only we could know which operational improvements would have the biggest impact on sales If only our managers knew how little time we can spend on priority issues and How much time does the corporate bureaucracy consume? Wouldn't it be great if the Dept. Systems meet deadlines for new developments? Sounds familiar?
With so many unfulfilled wishes it is not uncommon that your path to improvement in performance and results is full of obstacles.
Where to start?
Well, although it seems hard to believe, the obstacles tend to always be the same, despite the diversity of companies or business models.
Some companies have done more than others in trying to remove these barriers, but sooner or later they face them.
Let's look at some tactics to overcome these barriers:
Adoption of a working methodology:
Companies begin their approach to improving performance by defining a starting point. This may be, for example, the definition of the Mission, Vision, Values, Strategies and the set of strategic Indicators that will provide an appropriate quantitative measure of them.
Other cases begin with the definition of a Business Intelligence Project supported by a new Data Warehousing system.
For many managers, a Balanced Scorecard, with or without Business Intelligence, is a good way to start.
Whatever the form of start chosen, it must have a basic premise: it must be consistent. For example, if a business is analyzed globally, it must take into account the currency exchange differences of the countries in which it operates. Another example is to align the strategies of the different business units with corporate objectives; otherwise improvement efforts will be futile. It can also be mentioned the case that you want to work making decisions based on sales predictions, but if the analytical information of the same excludes some sector such as Sales, Marketing, Customer Services or Purchases, then the result may be very poor.
Whatever the starting point of your improvement program, here are some tips that can help you:
Cultural Barriers:
Companies that already have a culture oriented towards the measurement of any type of variable start with an initial advantage. But even they encounter obstacles on this path: for example, the banking sector has always been among the most innovative in terms of performance measurement, but still many business units operate independently and this means that there is no unified vision on the customer's perspective.
Frequently there is not a single department that acts on the client, but multiple sectors. But the lack of consistency makes it work on the client in a fragmented and sometimes contradictory way.
Alignment and Cooperation:
Aligning yourself with a certain strategy means more than simply agreeing with it. The Critical Factors to be measured must be aligned or “mapped” throughout the entire organization. In this way, a connection is sought between the participants of the company that allows them to move together in daily tasks towards the search for objectives.
An additional step to alignment is the concept of cooperation, which means sharing information and experience among the different participants in the improvement process.
Lack of cooperation can be costly; In our example from the banking sector, a client that is considered profitable for one business unit may be classified as a deficit by another. Thus, it is possible that targeted marketing campaigns may occur to capture customer segments that are later rejected by the credit departments.
Informatic support:
The mentioned about alignment and cooperation must be supported by computer integration. And here we refer to all kinds of integration.
Adding computer support as something key in the improvement processes will shed light on contradictions and inconsistencies between different initiatives. This is so because when improvement initiatives are embodied in computer applications, they are usually aware of other initiatives taken within the company that contradict the new one to be implemented.
Computer integration is often faced with this type of problem, which constitutes one of the great challenges to overcome. If data integration is achieved, the company may be on the right track in terms of improvement initiatives.
Predictive analysis:
Today it is fashionable to talk about predictive analytics. Although this seems to be a great technique for improving performance, it is important to clarify that it will not be very effective if it is not accompanied by a plan for its implementation.
With these UD tools. You can discover why problems occur and what are the most appropriate decisions that support your strategy.
Closing the gap between performance improvement and the selected strategy can help you in specific cases such as rapid adaptation to changes in demand or making the right investment decisions in projects with high impact on results.
