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KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: UNDERSTANDING HOW TO KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE DASHBOARD
The quality of your discussion is judged according to the variety of issues you address, the depth, logic, and structure of your writing (refer to Article 1 discussion under Lecture 2 material for example discussions). As your discussion should demonstrate the elements of critical thinking, you are advised to refer to the AREA critical thinking framework document (under Lecture 2 material) for further guidelines. The issues that should be addressed are provided in bullet points:
Analysis (What’s the problem? – describe the problem) * Just like manufacturing firms, service firms such as law firms need to keep track of performance. * Computerization has increased the supply of data so firms have to be critical in their approach to selecting KPI’s, which should be in line with company’s goals and strategy. * Information overload is often a problem and important data can be lost in the excess of information * The article also argues that performance should not be only compared to past data but also to data from other companies: benchmarking. (Cast your memory back to article on Budgets, which radically moved from backwards looking approach)
Relate (What do I already know about this topic and how does it relate to the issues raised in the article?) * Dashboards can help reduce the information provided to managers/employees by displaying only the most important information. * KPI’s are central to performance management and help focus on the correct things, i.e. what matters to the company. * According to the Balanced Scorecard, companies should ideally focus on 4 performance dimensions: financials, customers, processes and learning & growth. * This article focuses mostly on the financials and process related measures (refer to the 12 KPI’s) * Measures that could be added to the list that relate to the other two dimensions are customer
The quality of your discussion is judged according to the variety of issues you address, the depth, logic, and structure of your writing (refer to Article 1 discussion under Lecture 2 material for example discussions). As your discussion should demonstrate the elements of critical thinking, you are advised to refer to the AREA critical thinking framework document (under Lecture 2 material) for further guidelines. The issues that should be addressed are provided in bullet points:
Analysis (What’s the problem? – describe the problem) * Just like manufacturing firms, service firms such as law firms need to keep track of performance. * Computerization has increased the supply of data so firms have to be critical in their approach to selecting KPI’s, which should be in line with company’s goals and strategy. * Information overload is often a problem and important data can be lost in the excess of information * The article also argues that performance should not be only compared to past data but also to data from other companies: benchmarking. (Cast your memory back to article on Budgets, which radically moved from backwards looking approach)
Relate (What do I already know about this topic and how does it relate to the issues raised in the article?) * Dashboards can help reduce the information provided to managers/employees by displaying only the most important information. * KPI’s are central to performance management and help focus on the correct things, i.e. what matters to the company. * According to the Balanced Scorecard, companies should ideally focus on 4 performance dimensions: financials, customers, processes and learning & growth. * This article focuses mostly on the financials and process related measures (refer to the 12 KPI’s) * Measures that could be added to the list that relate to the other two dimensions are customer