We take a look at a recent Forbes article, explaining how a lack of information and data impacts a CEO's ability to lead and set effective goals
Earleir this week in Forbes, John Trammell CEO of Khorus, a business management software company, explains how the need for effective use of data is paramount to ensuring an organisation is aligned to current and future strategies set out by CEO’s.
In a survey carried out by Khorus, Trammell highlights that “nearly all of the 200 CEO’s we surveyed agreed that they aren’t getting the internal information they need to manage the company effectively.” The survey goes on to show that all the CEOs claimed to have concerns with at least one out of five internal business performance challenges.
A few data driven tools are mentioned in the article in order to alleviate these management issues, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the use of Excel spreadsheets. However, half of the CEO’s argue that these tools are ineffective, while laying the blame on misguided Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and poor organisational transparency. The combination of these factors and not receiving information frequently enough leaves CEO’s feeling that the optimal utilisation of data is far from achieved thus far.
As a result, Trammell explains that the key for organisations is to create a “system that aligns each employee to the organisation’s corporate strategy and goals.” This enables a healthy equilibrium whereby the employees know why they are doing what they are doing, in respect to the bigger picture strategy. Simultaneously, the CEO can continuously monitor whether or not every employee task is helping the organisations strategy and vision as a whole. In essence this should facilitate a top-down harmonisation of the work force, whereby all work carried out is in accordance to the overall strategy.
Trammell then takes the use of this proposed management system a step further and explains the power it can have for CEO’s to create predictive data. The information stored by the system would enable CEO’s to strategize for the future and focus on business expansion as opposed to consolidation.
With more time and emphasis on “employing goals as a management system” John believes “CEOs [will] get the predictive information he or she needs to run a more effective organization. “
Many thanks to Forbes and John Trammell for proving to us the power and potential data has in ensuring organization’s are aligned to a CEO’s strategy. Be sure to follow both of them for further insights to this fascinating topic.