Most of you will agree that the statement Even World Class Metrics Are Worthless When You Do Not Use Them is reasonable, particularly if you do not feel you have world class metrics.
 
Before you let yourself off the hook so quickly, how do you rate your metrics and how well they are used on a scale of 1 to 100, with 70 being a passing mark? For those who at lest passed and hopeful got an A or a B grade, how well does your business use those selected metrics as an executive level management tool?
 
I have been surprised how many companies do not receive a very good report card on the metric business drivers for their business. Some of you may have benchmarking, flash reports, leading indicators, key performance indicators (kpis) or some version of risk management.
 
However, most companies do not have a practical usable 5 to 7 key metric driven one page flash report management tool for their business. When done correctly, this provides an invaluable management tool. When this can not be done with a reasonable level of effort, it provides the opportunity to identify what these reasons are and see what detrimental impact those bottlenecks or roadmap are causing elsewhere in the system.
 
After all, if your accounting and operational systems satisfy the auditors and accounting departments needs, but your managers feel they do not receive the information they need to run the business, what is the cost of that in your company? Inability to obtain the crucial data on a timely manner delivered to your front line employees may be more important than having those world class metrics that arrive after the fact.
 
Consider selecting a group of key users at least once a year to suggest how to make the system work for your company rather than your employees working for the system. Those of you who honestly gave yourself a B, C D or F on your metrics and how they are used should convene that group this week. Why start this week? Because those of you with the 95 and above rating plan to do this process to they can widen the gap with their less prepared competition.