A hypothetical example of an appropriate, tightly constructed and integrated conclusion is given in Strategy @ work 5.4. This particular example suggests that, while financial performance and social performance are very good, the organisation is risking its long-term reputation by failing to meet its promises to customers and being behind in its environmental performance. This is a very concise and integrated summary of the performance of an organisation, yet it is also very sharp in its assessment. It demonstrates that the key measures can be integrated concisely, even when the trends suggest different and conflicting information.
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Is performance improving?
Strategy @ work 5.4
A CONCISE ASSESSMENT OF AN ORGANISATION'S STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE
Over the Iasi three years, the organisation has continued to provide an ROE that was much higher than the industry average. High margins, coupled with continued high growth, resulted in a sharemarket return that was. in the top quartile of sharemarket performers,
Low employee turnover indicates that employees find the organisation a desirable employer. The organisation is popular with its employees, the communities it works with, and with suppliers. However, the organi¬sation was unable to launch its expected suite of new products, and customer surveys showed signs of increased customer dissatisfaction with the organisation's inability to meet promised delivery dates in the latter part of the period. It is also well behind industry standards for emission control and efficiency of resource use. Overall, then, organisation performance over the last three years is around average. It is unbalanced in favour of short-term measures.
Communicating performance information t > >
Given that performance has been assessed, how might it be presented to others within and outside the organisation? Communicating the assessment is critical if behaviour is to be reinforced or changed to improve our future performance.
These days most organisations have plenty of data and information, but it is often poorly organised and/or poorly communicated. It is often not focused on key strategic issues, aligned internally, presented in a timely or understandable fashion, or even shared, particularly in the case of smaller family companies. Enlightened organisations measure performance on agreed and stated key criteria and share most information widely, reflecting the philosophy of employee involvement to engage and motivate employees at all levels.
Perceptually, most people are more attracted to graphical presentation than to tables of numbers (which is what a graph represents). So, graphical representation, widely disseminated and discussed, is recommended to communicate performance information most effectively. Figure 5.11 gives some examples of alternative ways of representing performance, which may be useful.
Figure 5.11
Figure 5.12