In a recent column in Colorado Business Magazine, author Larry Turner reports on a panel discussion among three Colorado business leaders who’ve seen improved revenues and business performance in spite of the recession. Beyond the usual, and worthy, advice about moving quickly, cutting costs and finding ways to enhance revenues, two themes really struck me:
Collaboration – Communicate the facts to employees and customers, and ask for ideas and help. Companies reported that employees came up with a number of really useful ideas to reduce costs. Being able to do this underscores the critical importance of building a high-trust communications environment in your organization – so that people are willing to share their ideas, and care about your success.
Transparency – These successful entrepreneurs identified the key metrics that focused everyone on performance, and began reporting on them even more frequently. To quote the article: “One company described the increase in their business as ‘reporting that was done yearly was now monthly, monthly reporting was now weekly, weekly reporting was daily, and daily reporting was many times each day.’”
Creating a system for sharing performance measures may seem counter-intuitive during a recession, but the process has immediate payoffs. In my experience, the act of getting your team into a room and talking about what the key measures ARE is a high value exercise in itself. Once you’ve arrived at a set of key performance indicators and created a system for regular reporting (whether with a simple spreadsheet or a specialized performance management software package) you are able to adapt and act, as a team, in a much more dynamic way.