What makes a successful organisation? And, more importantly, how do successful organisations hold on to their competitive advantage in fast-changing market sectors? Leadership, great products and a winning business model can create a market-leading company but to stay ahead, to consistently beat - or at the very least meet - ambitious projections and growth targets businesses need to actively manage performance. In challenging economic conditions it’s only by constantly monitoring operations that managers will know where to intervene and address problems. Active performance management means businesses can have much better control over their trading environment.
change++ have been developing performance management systems for large organisations for over 10 years and pretty much know all there is to know about how to collect, report and publish data from a range of sources to reflect achievement against target.
I think companies still don’t know how many effective tools there are to really boost business performance. When managers and teams can see at a glance how their area or individual outlet is performing relative to others in the group or region and then investigate precisely how those results have been achieved they’re immediately in a position to build on success or remedy problem areas. We have designed some really interesting dashboards and scorecards to report on corporate performance that everyone in the business can access. The net result is that everyone feels involved and wants to be a part of the process of continuous improvement.
Over our next three issues, I'm going to describe the main types of performance management tools and how these have helped groups like Whitbread, Bay Restaurant Group and Galderma stay ahead of their competitors.
For more information please email Della Payne of Change++ at della.payne@changepp.co.uk.
Skilled negotiating will make you money
David Brown
If you want to generate extra profit, read on! For 20 years I have operated as a consultant, helping organisations, teams, and individuals improve their performance. There is a constant need, especially in current times, to prove to clients that their money is being well spent; this is true whether they are sponsoring high level change programmes or skills training. Sometimes it is difficult to prove value for money, because so many surrounding factors can change. Sometimes, sadly, people cannot be bothered to evaluate the gain. So how can you be sure to generate more profit? The answer is to make sure that you and your people are skilled negotiators who constantly seek to improve their performance.
I once had a purchasing manager say to me that by using a structured negotiating framework he saved himself £8500 that he would otherwise have missed when negotiating with the provider of a new computer system. After a half day coaching session, he managed all his future negotiations like a project. He did the diagnosis; set goals; reviewed what went well and what he could have done better. He started as a good negotiator, and became a formidable one. I should have been paid by results!
Whether you are engaged in buying, selling, industrial relations, domestic disputes or family matters, you are negotiating more often than you realise. Sometimes you will negotiate with someone just once and never see them again. More often we negotiate with people that we have an ongoing relationship with, and we want them to come back to the negotiating table with good feelings towards us.
This year I wrote a book called Negotiating Secrets for Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-732807-9 It costs £6.99 and is available in Waterstones, Amazon, and “all good bookshops.” Its seven chapters cover:- Know when to negotiate; Prepare clear objectives; Discuss your respective positions; Deal only in packages; Bargain your way to success; Find common ground to reach agreement; Put it all together to profit.
Whether you are engaged in buying, selling, industrial relations, domestic disputes or family matters, you are negotiating more often than you realise. Sometimes you will negotiate with someone just once and never see them again. More often we negotiate with people that we have an ongoing relationship with, and we want them to come back to the negotiating table with good feelings towards us.
If you would like to know more, buy my book ("Negotiating Secrets" ISBN 978-0-00-732807-9 or contact David at davidbrown@scott-brown.co.uk.
