JUNE 2014 / NO. 1
TAGS: KPI, CUSTOMER FEEDBACK, AFTER ACTION REVIEWS
Key Predictive Indicators
“As senior management accumulates knowledge, they rely more on their internal networks for information, growing less attuned to market conditions. The result is in favor of avoiding losses over pursuing gains”, Harvard Business Review(HBR), April 2013
Do you recognize this statement? Think also about the Key Performance Indicators in your organizations, which are seen by management as essential tools telling them if their business is on target or veering off course. They are still, however, also tools for measurement. What should we think of these Key Predictive Indicators? This is about judgment, not quantity but quality, not costs but results. Measurement requires only a scale, while judgment requires intelligence. That is why key predictive indicators are a part of strategic intelligence and strategy, which raise questions rather than answer them. It is better to be approximately relevant than precisely irrelevant.
Key Predictive Indicators can include:
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Customer feedback: what do customers tell you
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Effective listening and communication skills; it’s easier to teach reading and writing!
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Risk-taking, innovation and creativity: how often do people adopt new ways of doing things?
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Knowledge elicitation: meaning educating others so they will be able to generate their own knowledge
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Continuous learning: but people may leave? But what if you don’t invest and they stay!
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Pride, passion, attitude, commitment: how can you measure these drivers?
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What percentage of your organization’s time is devoted to improvement, and not simply performing the work?
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AARs (After Action Reviews), whose aim is not so much to correct things, as to correct one’s thinking.
These challenging predictive indicators can influence our practice of strategic intelligence and strategy. We know that strategy is about shaping the future of our organizations. It is about setting in motion the sequence of events that will shape the future in a way our ambitions desire. There is, however, no guarantee that the future will turn out the way you want. It is explored with imagination, ambition and creative understanding of unmet customer needs and potential disruptive technology driving future opportunities. Take a deep dive why non-customers don’t buy existing products or services? Think about new ways of providing value to non-customers. Challenge senior management with the question “why not change the rules, why are we still happy with the status quo, why do we still focus on short-term shareholder value, and why do we still lack long-term vision?”
“A clear strategic direction is a concise set of choices that determines what we do and don’t do”, Freek Vermeulen
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