Top 3 Strategies for Better Business Insights

The most successful enterprises approach performance management through a strategic impact lens – understanding that a complex, uncertain environment demands agility, organization-wide alignment, and technology and systems that support achieving goals and outcomes.

Many companies are more effective in the technical and operational arenas than in strategic workforce deployment. Although people, jobs, and technology have drastically evolved in the past decade, many organizations still focus heavily on numbers and compliance.

It’s time for a paradigm shift from just tracking isolated numbers on a balance sheet toward a better understanding of what influenced the numbers and what adjustments are needed to create positive change.

Improve Organizational Alignment

Some analysts suggest that poor organizational alignment is the major hindrance to achieving the greatest level of performance management. Two of the most common barriers to improving company-wide performance and organizational alignment are resistance to change and inadequate technology.

Examples of effective organizational alignment include:
1. Competency: Human capital equipped with the knowledge, skill set and capabilities to implement the organization’s collective strategy.
2. Consequences: Policies and practices that accurately measure, reward and align all stakeholders to company strategy.
3. Governance: Functional structures, communication systems and protocol to enable high-performance teams.
4. Leading and Adaptability: Mechanisms and technology to respond to uncertainty and change quickly.

When companies focus on total organizational alignment – through greater transparency, selective hiring practices, and comprehensive onboarding programs – accounting profits increase.

Increase Scope of Financial Information for Analysis

While organizational alignment lays a solid foundation for improving company-wide outcomes, information plays an integral role in achieving superior results. Analyzing departmental performance against sales goals, consumer spending behaviors, customer service delivery and competitor vulnerability afford decision-makers new opportunities to exploit potential markets and address barriers to achieving greater success.

Most financial executives favor increasing the scope of financial information gathering over gaining speed to expedite responsiveness. Delving into the how, what, when and why behind the numbers on the financial statements creates clarity and better insight into the market, organizational competence and consumer expectations.

Focus on Process Discipline Using the Right Technology

Synchronizing departmental objectives is critical to success today. It isn’t enough to warehouse “Big Data.” Without a cohesive integrated data management system, organizations face the laborious tasks of compiling, analyzing and responding to information gathered.

Enabling efficient process discipline with best-of-breed technology facilitates process definition and design – based on company goals and resources. Technology choices directly impact internal and external communication, collaboration, production, and user adoption. Financial leaders recognize that ongoing process development and improvement supports improved profitability management.

The ability to access relevant, timely information for benchmarking and competitive analysis cannot be overstated. The right technology ultimately provides access to this vital information in comprehensible and actionable formats.

Conclusion

While building a better mousetrap may generate a temporary uptick in sales, long-term performance demands a strategy that values all stakeholders. Transparency and communication facilitates organizational alignment across diverse departments. Increasing the scope of information available and upgrading to highly sophisticated technology positions business leaders to capture vital information about their businesses and the global marketplace, improving decision-making capabilities and performance outcomes.