"We made a mistake that’s exceedingly common in business:
We measured the wrong thing. The statistic we relied on to assess our performance - revenues - was disconnected from our overall objective of profitability.
As a result, our strategic and resource allocation decisions didn’t support that goal.(
Moi ici: E na sua empresa, o que se mede? Que indicadores são acompanhados? Por exemplo: que tipo de clientes consegue identificar no seu portfolio? O que compram? Onde, quando e como compram? Que experiência procuram? Que actividades internas mede? Que investimentos faz e como os acompanha? E como os justifica? Que rentabilidades proporcionam?)
...
Businesses continue to use the wrong statistics. (Moi ici: E tem um sistema da qualidade? E quais são os seus objectivos? Manter a certificação? Acha que se reduzir os defeitos é mesmo isso que lhe vai salvar o negócio?)
...
Many business executives seeking to create
shareholder value also rely on intuition in selecting statistics. The
metrics companies use most often to measure, manage, and communicate
results - often called key performance indicators - include financial
measures such as sales growth and earnings per share (EPS) growth in
addition to nonfinancial measures such as loyalty and product quality.
Yet, as we’ll see, these have only a loose connection to the objective
of creating value. Most executives continue to lean heavily on poorly
chosen statistics, (Moi ici: Qual a lógica, qual o critério para os indicadores que a gestão de topo da sua empresa acompanha?)
...
To determine which statistics are useful,
you must ask two basic questions. First, what is your objective? In
sports, it is to win games. In business, it’s usually to increase
shareholder value.(Moi ici: Este objectivo é muito enganador, criar valor para o accionista não é um objectivo directo, é uma consequência de criar as condições para que os clientes, ou melhor, o ecossistema da procura, percepcionem a criação de valor na sua vida, na sua realidade) Second, what factors will help you achieve that
objective? If your goal is to increase shareholder value, which
activities lead to that outcome?
.
What
you’re after, then, are statistics that reliably reveal cause and
effect. (Moi ici: Matéria-prima para um mapa da estratégia) These have two defining characteristics: They are persistent,
showing that the outcome of a given action at one time will be similar
to the outcome of the same action at another time; and they are predictive—that is, there is a causal relationship between the action the statistic measures and the desired outcome.
...
To identify useful statistics, you must have a
solid grasp of cause and effect. If you don’t understand the sources of
customer satisfaction, for example, you can’t identify the metrics that
will help you improve it. (Moi ici: É todo um volume, só com postais deste blogue, sobre quem são os clientes-alvo e porque é que ficarão satisfeitos) This seems obvious, but it’s surprising how
often people assign the wrong cause to an outcome. This failure results
from an innate desire to find cause and effect in every situation—to
create a narrative that explains how events are linked even when they’re
not.
...
companies also use nonfinancial performance
measures, such as product quality, workplace safety, customer loyalty,
employee satisfaction, and a customer’s willingness to promote a
product. In their 2003 HBR article, accounting professors Christopher Ittner and David Larcker wrote that “most companies have made little
attempt to identify areas of nonfinancial performance that might advance
their chosen strategy. Nor have they demonstrated a cause-and-effect
link between improvements in those nonfinancial areas and in cash flow,
profit, or stock price.” The authors’ survey of 157 companies showed
that only 23% had done extensive modeling to determine the causes of the
effects they were measuring. The researchers suggest that at least 70%
of the companies they surveyed didn’t consider a nonfinancial measure’s
persistence or its predictive value. Nearly a decade later, most
companies still fail to link cause and effect in their choice of
nonfinancial statistics.(Moi ici: Estamos a falar do universo norte-americano, não venham depois dizer que os empresários portugueses são isto e são aquilo, são humanos como os outros)
...
Start with a blank slate and work through these four steps in sequence.
.
1. Define your governing objective. A clear objective is essential to business success because it guides the allocation of capital.
...
2. Develop a theory of cause and effect to assess presumed drivers of the objective.
...
3. Identify the specific activities that employees can do to help achieve the governing objective.
The goal is to make the link between your objective and the measures
that employees can control through the application of skill. The
relationship between these activities and the objective must also be
persistent and predictive.
...
4. Evaluate your statistics.
Finally, you must regularly reevaluate the measures you are using to
link employee activities with the governing objective. The drivers of
value change over time, and so must your statistics."
Trechos retirados de "The True Measures of Success" publicado na HBR de Outubro deste ano.
