Page 82 - Performance Leadership

Chapter 5 Operational and Analytical Alignment • 71

food jars. A well-defined process was in place to prevent the escalation
of the problem; a full set of details were shared with the public, which
helped address a major public image risk.

External Triggers
Being in touch with your stakeholder environment is of vital importance
in decision-making processes. The higher up the ladder, the more exter-
nal events affect management. Increasingly, real-time information on
competitive initiatives, major events in the market, or legal threats needs
an immediate response. The sooner the response comes, through an
aligned management decision-making process, the better the external
world will perceive the organization.

Strategic Initiatives
Every organization has a few strategic projects or activities that have
to be watched closely for a certain amount of time. These special ini-
tiatives always need extra attention. Although new products, services,
joint ventures, and special marketing campaigns may not have a sub-
stantial impact on today’s bottom line, they are of strategic importance
and will affect the future performance of the enterprise. Typically,
these special business activities need more short-term attention than
established activities. This warrants executive attention and much
more frequent monitoring than other day-to-day activities. The same
goes for special business events, such as quarterly closings. Where in
other weeks perhaps a weekly overview of the sales pipeline is suffi-
cient, in the last week of the quarter a daily update may be needed; in
the last two or three days perhaps an update every hour is required.

Comfort Information
Senior management, like everyone else in the organization, needs
“comfort information.” Comfort information can be defined as those
performance indicators that most likely will be under control, usually
do not need specific attention, and make the manager feel in control.
Real-time management information is not always about exceptions that
need to be corrected. An executive of a mobile telecom operator, for
example, may want daily reports on the availability of the network or