I have witnessed more debates about KPIs and measures than any human really should. They normally settle into a few clear families. We shouldn’t measure -insert controversial topic- because: It’s too hard/expensive to measure We tried that before and it didn’t work It doesn’t have a causal link with the thing that we are interested [...]
Guest Blog: The 12 Characteristics of Good Performance Measures
September 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
KPIs are critical for the success of any organisation. They are a measure of progress against goals. However, not every measure is a KPI. Put it in the words of Albeit Einstein,“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”. Good performance measures allow for comparisons to be made [...]
Spooks, Star Trek and KPIs
September 22, 2011 By 2 Comments
Like 4.6 million other people, I enjoy Spooks. I do find myself wincing a bit when Harry, or whoever, makes completely random requests of his spy geeks and they always come up with the goods – you know the kind of thing – “can you cross reference that train ticket with his gardening bill and [...]
Building KPI engagement
September 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
KPIs and measures are like scales and gym membership. They are great, but only if you use them (and regularly). No matter how good your management information system is, you must make sure that the team are engaged with it. This means The team use the system regularly to help make business decisions They [...]
What we are about…
July 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
KPIs and measures can drive a business in the right direction, or become instruments of torture. I believe that most organisations can do a lot more with the data and systems they already have. This site is all about helping you improve your measures, KPIs and reporting. Dive in, take what you need and let me [...]
Are your KPI reports a mess? A half day report-design course.
July 11, 2011 By
Do you wish you could glance at a simple report or dashboard and instantly grasp the key opportunities for your business? Dashboards have become increasingly popular in recent years, but many don’t deliver their full potential. If they don’t deliver instantly what the user needs, then the chances are they will never be used again. [...]
Three questions to tell if your strategy is broken
December 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Imagine going into B&Q, finding one of the helpful staff and saying “You know a lot about tools, I’d like you to recommend a good one please?”. It sounds pretty silly and it’s pretty clear that the response will be “Well, what is it you want the tool for?”. Strangely enough, many people and organisations [...]
How to measure the “unmeasurable”
November 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’m often told that some things are impossible to measures. It’s true that some things are much less obvious but there are some pretty ingenious ways around this. If you can’t measure something directly then you can look for “coincident” events or activities. What am I gibbering on about? Let me give you an example: [...]
