12/05/10


Hi <<First Name>>

For those of you who have been following my material for a while, you will know that I got very slack with my newsletter.  But it's back.

I will now be resuming, on a weekly basis the publication of the newsletter, in a slightly different format to old.  But it will have the usual tips, tools and  ideas on numbers, measurement, analytics and thoughtleadership. So lets start..

The One Main Thing

It is important to implement the right metrics in a business, so that we gain insights into customer and team behaviour. This will enable us to lead and manage a business. We must measure what matters, but the question is "what matters"?  

To answer this we need to determine what our customers see as the value from dealing with our organisation.  What they see is the important aspects of your products, or services, or dealing with your business.  Success can only be defined in the eyes of the customer.  We need to measure what that means so that we can have a true insight into the business.

This can be boiled down to one main thing.  There is always one focus area in a business, with one main number that provides the insight.  From the information of the one main number we can get the insight into what we need to do to develop the business.

It does not mean that there is no other data or no other numbers of consequence.  What it means is that there is a focal point to the business. This is the point/issue/aspect that if we concentrate the greatest effort will have the biggest impact. 

A quick example, (while of a large public company is just as applicable as any small or medium enterprise); and that was of Gordon Bethune of Continental Airlines.  When Gordon was appointed as CEO of Continental Airlines the focal point of the business was cost per passenger airline mile.  This led to a set of behaviours that led to cost cutting, decreased service and unhappy customers.  Continental was ranked the worst airline in the United States.  Upon a careful examination of the business he changed this focus to on-time arrivals, and this number was measured.  This radically transformed the business into the number one ranked airline and a profitable airline in 18months.  Yes, they measured a lot of other aspects, but there was one focus point.

Throughout this newsletter and into the future you'll see on my website and blog I will explain further how to determine the one main thing, the one main number, but also how to use the other financial metrics and analysis in their right place for the management of the business.  The one main thing and the one main number leads through to true leadership of the business.



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