Measuring and Managing Performance

SPOs measure and analyze their performance in their internal context, i.e., what happens within their organizations, and the external context, i.e. what happens to them in the business environment. The approaches they used are multidimensional and are characterized by being:

Inclusive i.e, covering the expectations of all key stakeholders.

Predictable, which means where cause and effect relationships are well understood for taking meaningful actions.

Comprehensive i.e, covering all process results, plans, achievements, comparisons of operational parameters, market performance, costs, supplier performance, environmental improvements, occupational health & safety improvements, financial performance, governance and compliance results, and accomplishment of strategic objectives.

Sustainable to include predictive analytics and transformative initiatives to drive performance in the future.

A set of well-thought-out approaches lead to more effective measurement of performance to craft strategies that are well embedded into realities.
Once the approaches are articulated, SPOs take special care in selecting and using performance measures that are best suited to drive improved customer experiences, operational performance, financial results, and societal/environmental performance. Major improvements in response times often require new work systems, the simplification of work processes, agile supplier and partner networks, and the ability fo rapid changeover from one process or one location to another. The required capabilities need to be developed on the go. A cross-trained and empowered workforce having a high level of competency in data analytics of the right and relevant lead and lag measures, combined with effective management will undoubtedly go a long way toward building agility as a corporate virtue. A comprehensive yet carefully culled set of measures tied to customer and organizational performance requirements provides a clear basis for aligning all processes with the organization’s performance targets. Data analysis of the measures means extracting larger meaning to support evaluation, decision-making, improvement, and innovation. A balanced composite of leading and lagging performance measures is an effective means to communicate short-and-longer-term priorities, monitor actual performance, and provide a clear basis for improving results thereby continuing to have higher performance. Sustainable performance occurs when the values and attributes of an SPO are congruent with the business objectives and the behaviors of people are well-aligned with the values. Finally, a systems perspective is adopted by the SPOs to manage all the components of an organization as a unified whole to achieve Vision, Strategy, and Performance Excellence.

What can we do for sustained performance at G&B?

Sustained high performance in today’s globally competitive environment demands continual organizational Learning, Agility, and Innovation.
Organizational learning is about acquiring new knowledge continuously, but more importantly, deploying this knowledge meaningfully and skilfully for improvements.
Also, new skills have to be acquired with new technologies coming into play, unstoppably and rapidly. And more importantly, a new mindset that is conducive to the learning needs to be cultivated at all levels in the organization. Organizational agility requires a capacity for adapting to rapid change and flexibility for doing things that are not done before. Shorter cycles ought to be the order of the day for introducing new products and services. New initiatives need to be implemented quickly for responding to emerging challenges, emanating from ever-changing marketplaces and regulations. Disruptive events are also occurring with a greater frequency which needs to be responded to, with innovative approaches, quickly. Organizational innovation must become an important area for focus in the context of our new purpose – Pioneering Progress For Generations. To pioneer progress, we require both incremental innovations and breakthrough innovations. As of today, we have a well-embedded process for facilitating incremental innovations, but we need to work more on creating a process for breakthrough innovations.
Time Performance is an important dimension of performance, that if strongly focused upon will help G&B to stand out in the marketplace.
Imagine the power of the promise of ‘On Time, Every time’ and visualize what it can do to give that edge to the businesses of G&B. Time performance is so powerful that it can drive work-system related improvements across organizations resulting in reduced cost and improved quality. It will also facilitate the digitalization of work systems for improving productivity manifold. Synthesis and Alignment: There is a need to understand existing business models for creating value for the key stakeholders (customers, people, business, and society). These models need to be updated or transformed into new models based on the changes happening in the environment. Organization-specific synthesis, alignment, and integration make the internal system successful. The organization exists within a business ecosystem – a network of organizations, including partners, suppliers, collaborators, competitors, customers, communities, and other relevant organizations inside and outside the sector or industry. Within this larger system, roles between organizations may be fluid as opportunities arise and need change. For the business ecosystem, synthesis means understanding your organization as a part of the larger whole. Alignment means using key organizational linkages to ensure consistency of plans, processes, measures, and actions. Integration builds on alignment so that the individual components of a performance management system operate in a fully interconnected, unified, and mutually beneficial manner to deliver anticipated results.

Deploying New Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values

As G&B now has a new Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values, which if deployed deeply and widely will lead to enhanced customer focus on generating superior experience and higher expectations from our people across the organization. These focal areas will enable us to balance the needs of all stakeholders. In consonance, leaders need to ensure the creation of strategies, systems, and methods for building new capabilities, stimulating innovation, managing risk, and achieving excellence in all spheres of business.

Wrapping up

The pursuit of sustainable performance leadership requires a strong future orientation and a willingness to make long-term commitments to key stakeholders – customers, the workforce, suppliers, partners, business stakeholders, and the community. It also requires the agility to modify plans, business models, processes, and relationships when the circumstances warrant to continue to have high performance.