You Want Improvement? You Need to Measure It

Peter Drucker was famous for saying, “What gets measured, gets managed.” It’s been around a while but it sure hasn’t gathered any dust.

You want improvement? You need to measure it.

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What never ceases to amaze us, when working with business people is how many still refute the importance of measuring progress towards the achievement of their goals.

There are vast numbers of business people who are unhappy with their current profitability and cash flow, yet a markedly smaller number who actually take the time to sit down and plan for profit and put reporting mechanisms in place to measure progress towards the achievement of these critical success factors.

It may sound cryptic, but how can you truly be UN-happy with the results you are currently getting in business and life if you haven’t taken the time to set a goal and planned out what would truly make you feel happy and fulfilled?

Albert Einstein had a name for it: Insanity… ‘Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’

On the surface most people know they should be ‘being’ more, ‘doing’ more and achieving ‘more’ without really knowing what ‘more’ looks or feels like.

So what’s the key?

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Quantifiable and Meaningful goals that are Established and Measured that can be Managed and Improved.

This is the true meaning of goal setting and achievement, and highlights the importance of having goals, KPIs and targets that are all in alignment.

In all areas of life, whether it be our favourite sports game or flight itinerary, everything is tracked, measured and reported on. We expect our planes to be on time and the game to start where and when it’s scheduled to.

So why don’t business owners expect their businesses to operate with such precision and accuracy according to their desired outcomes?

Four Essential Categories to Measure Business Performance 

It doesn’t matter whether you are a trades business or a recruiting business; these four categories apply to all industries, and should be measured and reported on according to well-planned CSFs:

1. Marketing & Sales
2. Finances
3. Operation / Production
4. People

The Four Characteristics of Effective CSFs

Within each category you need to set CSFs that are consistent with your goals and also efficient at measuring your performance.

Four key characteristics that your CSFs must contain are:

1. Quantitative: They can be presented in the form of numbers.
2. Practical: They integrate well with present company processes.
3. Directional: They help to determine of a company is improving.
4. Actionable: They can be put into practice to effect desired change.

In today’s fast paced business world, businesses are getting left behind because of the time they are taking to learn, plan and implement business improvement and growth strategies.

To dominate in today’s market, you have to be great at taking action today, and improve as you go (feedback from CSFs), rather than trying to get it perfect before taking it to the marketplace.

If you delay, someone will beat you to it, and you will miss the opportunity all together, or only get the tail end of the opportunity when it is too late.

Rob Kropp

Founder - Pravar Group