Relevance: Hitting Your Goals by Knowing What Matters

Relevance: Hitting Your Goals by Knowing What Matters

by David Apgar
Released April 2008
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9780787997595

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Book description

In this groundbreaking book, business guru David Apgar helps leaders pinpoint which information matters most for successful goal setting, strategy, and bottom-line performance. Based on simple and easy-to-implement practices, Relevance outlines a new discipline focused on the relevance of performance measures for assessing key strategy issues and accelerating learning. David Apgar's practices are grounded in solid business research and clearly illustrated with real-life examples from top-performing companies such as Toyota, Alcoa, Nestlé, Capital One, Cisco, Microsoft, and GE.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedicaiton
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction: THE END OF THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION
    1. Dimensions of an Information Crisis
    2. Relevance and the End of the Information Revolution
    3. Why Focus on Performance Management?
    4. Relearning Learning from Experience
    5. The Larger Relevance of Relevance
  7. 1: GROWING TO LEARN
    1. Accountability at the Expense of Firmwide Learning at BP
    2. The Rarity of Strategic Clarity
    3. How Setting Testable Strategies Helps Alcoa and GE Learn from Experience
  8. 2: GOALS, ASSUMPTIONS, AND THE EIGHT-LINE STRATEGY
    1. Eight-Line Paths
    2. Rule 1: Devise Short-Term Milestones
    3. Rule 2: Set 50-50 Goals
    4. Rule 3: Lay Out High-Surprise Assumptions
    5. Rule 4: Identify Major Risks and Spillover Effects
    6. Example of an Eight-Line Strategy
    7. Why Testable Strategies Matter
  9. 3: KNOWING WHAT MATTERS
    1. A Quiet Day on the Tigris
    2. A Relevant Definition
    3. Strategy or Dogma?
    4. Red Herrings
    5. The Search for Universal Data
  10. 4: KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND THE METRICS MATRIX
    1. Screening Indicators for Relevance
    2. Screening Indicators for Specificity and Putting the Two Screens Together
    3. The Metrics Matrix and the Search for Better Indicators
    4. Strategy Metrics, Managerial Fallibilism, and the End of Magical Thinking
  11. 5: THREE KINDS OF PERFORMANCE GAPS AND THE STRATEGY REVIEW
    1. Triangular Definitions
    2. Performance Reviews as Strategy Reviews
    3. How to Close a Strategy Gap
    4. Trust and Risk
  12. 6: PLANNING TO EVOLVE
    1. The Pattern of Gaps in Performance Results as Keys to Managing Growth and Risk
    2. Learning Continuously to Sell Chocolate Everywhere
    3. Metrics Matrix Time Tracks and the Frequency of Performance Updates
    4. Self-Organized Coordination, the Optimal Scope of the Firm, and the Fairness of Compensation
  13. Conclusion: THE BEGINNING OF THE RELEVANCE REVOLUTION
    1. 1. How Is Organizational Learning Related to Growth?
    2. 2. What's Wrong with Balanced Scorecards, and What's the Alternative?
    3. 3. How Should We Set Performance Goals?
    4. 4. How Do Testable Strategies Help Us Learn from Experience?
    5. 5. Which Metrics Matter?
    6. 6. How Can We Measure Relevance?
    7. 7. What Kinds of Acquisitions Are Relevant to Our Business?
    8. 8. Are Forecasts Necessary?
    9. 9. Why Do Traditional Performance Reviews Destroy Morale?
    10. 10. What's the Relation Between Performance Volatility and Compensation?
    11. 11. What Does Relevance Have to Do with Leadership?
    12. 12. What's a Relevance Revolution?
  14. Notes
  15. Acknowledgments
  16. The Author
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Relevance: Hitting Your Goals by Knowing What Matters
  • Author(s): David Apgar
  • Release date: April 2008
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9780787997595