Unleashing the awesome power of KPI

I’m a truly global speaker with more than 25 years of speaking experience. I’ve worked with royalty, fortune 100 companies and many of the largest companies in the world. I’ve spoken in more than 71 different countries, hundreds of different cities and touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. During my vast experience, no matter where I go in the world, I'm always the same question... "What are the top 25 KPI to measure in my business?"

My first response is, "Why do you think you need 25 KPI?" You see, that's the killer right form the start. When creating your Daily Operating Controls (DOC) or your KPI Dashboard, the worst thing you can do is to begin with too much information. The real secret to success is to start small, you only need 3 or 4 KPI to get yourself focused on your objectives. This is because too much information deflects and divides your attention across too many different areas. By far the best approach is first to ask yourself the following questions:

1) What am I trying to achieve? Keep it simple, but with as much clarity as you can manage, be very clear about what you want. Don't be far reaching and generalised like "I want to make more profit", be much more specific. Once you know specifically what you want to achieve you're ready for the next stage:

2) Which KPI do I need to help me to achieve my objective? Honestly, if you can't nail it down to 3 or 4 KPI, then you're doing something wrong.

The main problem I see is that most people don't know what they want, or their objectives are multiple and far too generalised and as a result they create a report with 25 KPI or more and hope that something sticks. That's a strategy built on naivety, hope and wishful thinking. You have to know specifically what you want to achieve and then use the precise strategic KPI to help you to reach your target with laser beam accuracy.

If you were to ask me, "Well Jeff, what are the top 3 KPI?" My answer would still be the same in that it depends upon what you want to achieve. If you don't know what you want to achieve, why do you need KPI?

KPI are not answers, they're questions. The help you to get to grips with cause and effect in your business. If you don't know what you want and you select 25 KPI to measure your business, you're asking for a whole host of problems because you can't possibly be asking yourself the right questions.

It's like having 25 people standing in a line, each of them is holding a rifle and the instruction they're giving is Ready, Fire, Aim.

The secret to success here is to know what you want and then start small - Ready, Aim, Fire. As you and your business grow, you can then work on other objectives and then pull in other KPI to suit each specific objective.

I find it really frustrating when I see a KPI flash report that's been in use inside a business for the last 10 years and they use the exact same KPI today as they did 10 years ago. I ask them, "Do you still have the same objectives as you did 10 years ago?" They say no and I say, "Well if your objectives have changed, why are you still using the same KPI that you used 10 years ago?" If your target moves, you have to adjust your aim before you fire.

Success in life is easy if you follow this simple rule:

1) Know what you want

2) Know what you need

3) Do what you know