Performance Manager » Commentaries

Strategy vs. Execution: What’s More Important?

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:48:12 +0000

Strategy Formulation vs. Strategy Execution is like architecture and construction: equally essential, and wholly interdependent. One cannot fulfill without the other.

Without good blueprints, the house you build will be ugly and sub-functional, maybe dangerous (sounds like too many enterprises we all know, right?). With good blueprints but bad construction, the house you build may be nice looking, but certainly sub-functional and definitely dangerous.

Practically speaking, while both Strategy Formulation and Execution have their challenges and difficulties, we’ve seen… Read more

Automating Sales Operations: Why & How

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:45:03 +0000

These days, few if any organizations are still manually managing their sales processes.

That being said, let’s state the obvious: using Excel to do anything is computer-enabled manual processing, but it is not automation. Nor is using fragmented and dis-integrated tools for all of the elements related to sales and selling. Just as the chain is only as strong as its weakest link, automated Sales Operations management is only as useful and effective as its weakest element.

The goal of selling is to generate more revenue and profits by acquiring, retaining and enhancing profitable customer relationships. The goal of Sales Operations is to… Read more

Actions & Outcomes in Sales & Service

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:51:14 +0000

Getting right to the point: the desired goal and outcome of sales, customer service and relationship management initiatives is improved profit.

Profit growth results from retaining valuable customers and cost-optimizing customer service. Valued customers are acquired by the Sales process and enhanced and retained in the ongoing Service process.

Until now, these outcomes could only be measured after the fact, after the actions, often too late in the workflow to improve behaviors and performance.

But, that is finally changing… Read more

Generally Accepted Performance Management Principles?

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:44:42 +0000

Given that labor costs represent one of the most significant expense items for most enterprises, it should come as no surprise to anyone that “personnel”, “talent”, or “human resource” management is a major strategic and tactical priority.

Too many organizations, however, both in and outside of the commercial arena, take far too much for granted when it comes to the management of workforce performance. The facts are that when it comes to the workforce, most organizations implement broad-based yet highly fragmented and ineffective initiatives, or invest the minimum required by regulation and law, or both.

Since there are no “Generally Accepted Performance Management Principles”, each enterprise is left to its own devices to imagine, construct, implement, sustain, and evolve its own ‘unique’ approach. They do so with the participation of stakeholders, subject matter specialists, consultants, technologists and governments who have not agreed on any standards.

Sadly, that’s the world within which most workforce members perceive they live and work. The fundamental consequence is the under-performance of most human enterprises.

Employee/Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is an approach that applies the same process, procedure and technology rigor, consistency, and universality to workforce performance as organizations now apply to Financial Resource Management; at least within an organization. Read more

Getting & Keeping Workforce Engagement

admin — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:36:23 +0000

Lest we forget, it’s your workforce that actually does the work to execute strategies to fulfill your goals and objectives. And, if your workforce isn’t “bought in”, or engaged, in your goals, objectives, strategies, and action plans, those simply won’t be achieved.

Getting, and keeping, workforce engagement is critical to success. It depends on the performance management equivalent of financial “materiality”: Relevance. For your goals and strategies to be successfully accomplished, they need to be aligned, relevant, and meaningful to the nature of the workforce, and their… Read more

Strategic Convergence:

admin — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:12:06 +0000

Workforce, Customer & Channel Performance Management

What goes around, comes around. Once again, in an evolving post-downturn business climate, different relationship and performance expectations begin to re-emerge: “new” to some, “back to the future” for others.

Across every sector, the one-dimensional focus on workforce Sales Performance Management (SPM) is again beginning to reveal… Read more

Performance Management is a Verb

admin — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:39:37 +0000

What IS Performance Management?

It is not a software program or SaaS application that stores workforce performance appraisal results, competencies, and work histories.

It is not Business Intelligence, Analytics or Data Administration software or processes.

It is also not administration, record-keeping, file management, or accounting about results.

We all tend to understand what we mean by “performance”, the work of getting something done. The problem seems to be that some in the strategy, consulting, and software realms have inaccurately defined what “management” means. Read more

The Coming Retention Crisis

admin — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:45:55 +0000

When economies downturn, the on-the-ground reality is that wealth-producing commercial enterprises (and, eventually also their dependent service-providers and governments) are forced to cut-back resource deployments: reduce their workforce, reduce investments, and reduce expenses.

Sustained economic downturns cut deeper into workforce reductions, into the realm of top-performers that missed cutbacks in earlier rounds. These downturns also reduce competitors, and reduce customer service levels of the surviving enterprises.

This chain of events sets up more on-the-ground bad news for unprepared enterprises when… Read more

How Fast Would You Run in the Dark?

admin — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:38:39 +0000

It’s 3AM and it’s almost pitch black outside. The damp chill of the dead night air is on your bare arms. You can barely see your hand in front of your face.

An unseen voice tells you will be running a full marathon. Suddenly, someone points you in a direction and tells you run as fast as you can. Then, they disappear.

How fast would you run? How long would you run? And, at what point would you simply… Read more

Strategy-Driven Execution…?

admin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 08:32:25 +0000

I read a Discussion on LinkedIn recently where the question was posed: what do you think about the effectiveness of Strategy-Driven Execution?

When the dizziness passed and I got back up into my chair, my primal response was: hold on… is there anything ELSE that should conceivably be driving business process Execution, except Strategy?

And, if you have an answer for that other than ‘no’, then all my mind can visualize is… Read more