Key Performance Indicators For Dummies

Chapter 5

Developing a KPI

In This Chapter

Identifying the critical questions that need answered

Identifying the right KPIs for your needs

Assessing data collection techniques

The vast majority of executives fully acknowledge the need to measure performance in real time, so they can work out if they are on track toward their objectives or not. However, they don’t always know how to develop the right KPIs. How do you distil the mountains of data into meaningful action-orientated information that can direct decision making? How do you find the necessary needles in the ever-expanding haystacks?

This chapter helps you to answer those questions so you can develop the right KPIs for your business needs.

My working life is spent helping organisations define and articulate their strategy, develop dashboards or scorecards around that strategy and developing the right KPIs that will help them to monitor and manage their business successfully and deliver those strategic objectives. What I find time and time again is that any prior effort to achieve this result has been thwarted by a back-to-front approach to the process. Too often organisations fall into the trap of retro-fitting objectives ...