MAKING COMPANY STRATEGY EVERYONE'S PRIORITY

"If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else." - Laurence J. Peter

Knowing where you want the company to go strategically is one thing, communicating it throughout the enterprise so that all employees at each level of the organization understand how their efforts roll up into the big picture is quite another. Employees in all types of organizations should be relying on the corporate strategy to guide their decisions and focus their energies on the areas of highest priority. If they don't know where they should be going, then a lot of time, money, and energy will be wasted on activities that do not support the overall corporate objectives.

A common pitfall today is that managers have no way of monitoring their department's performance relative to the corporate strategy and thus have little opportunity to collaborate for effective decision-making. This can leave some employees feeling lost. So despite an abundance of performance data, companies still make many key decisions based on gut feel and best guesses.

Putting ownership of data and more control of analytic processes in the hands of the finance or data management departments will allow a sharing of reliable data between departments and will encourage all of these parties to think more deeply about their place in the company's financial picture – and to clarify their roles in improving that picture. While the companies that have adopted these systems most successfully tend to start out with limited goals, each quarter or year they add additional metrics and look for new ways that their Corporate Performance Management (CPM) systems can help them use information more strategically.

Business Performance Management (BPM) enables organizations to better comprehend, optimize and align their business strategies and processes to improve value and increase efficiency. It helps to align all members of an organization around common goals and strategies. Initiatives linked to the strategy help make prioritization easier for every employee and provide feedback to people on key issues – notably, areas where they can have an impact. This makes BPM an essential decision making tool for everyone in the organization.

BPM is an umbrella term that describes all of the processes, methodologies, metrics and systems needed to measure and manage the performance of an organization. Many companies from the global 3500 and major public sector organizations have embraced the vision of BPM. They understand the value of enabling and engaging everyone in an organization to manage the organization's performance. They are deploying technologies and solutions to make that vision real.

A BPM system automates and preserves senior management intent – making the organization's strategy and priorities everyone's priorities. It provides these three core values:

• Information delivery — Understand the business
• Performance oversight — Manage the business
• Performance effectiveness — Improve the business.

Effective systems of controls, accountability and measurement through metrics, inclusive planning, and timely reporting ensure management can discharge its oversight requirements.

With oversight, you help decision-makers manage the business. Through information delivery, you have put everyone on the same page. Oversight lets you distribute accountability and responsibility and transparently see the results.

Let's look at the stages best achieved through BPM:

• Business Intelligence – takes the volume of data your organization collects and stores, and turns it into meaningful reports and analysis that everyone can use. It helps meet the information needs of all users.
• Planning – Communicate plans enterprise-wide and with external partners as necessary to keep everyone on the same page. Engage all participants and improve buy-in rather than working through the pain of multiple, unlinked spreadsheets.
• Monitoring and Accountability – Connect departments by scorecard metrics. Scorecard metrics are interdependent and make visible the impact one department has on another leading to proactive cooperation among different areas.
• Forecasting – Ensure that the business plan is forward-focused, not just focused on the present. When needed, exercise your ability to realign your business to forecast in real-time. Make adjustments as necessary with rolling forecasts that let you realign as events occur, rather than using annual budgets that are out of date as soon as they're printed.
• Strategy – The first step and the final step. Your corporate strategy should be used to define and refine each of the above steps. Once you have your detailed plan (forecast) you will be able to monitor measurable goals that support your corporate strategy.

You are now able to give management and senior executives an automated, systemic means to improve the business. People are aligned, people understand their responsibilities, and with effectiveness, you can move the company as one entity towards its future goals.

Written by Marie Thomerson, Data Management Group Consultant