Update 24 December (Christmas Eve) 2007 - The Executive Pitch
Well folks on Friday, my last day in the office for 2007, I sent the two levels of management above me and one manager above and to the left, a flash demo of the reporting that we have created. The objective is to gain executive sponsorship to bring our project into the mainstream and become the reporting scorecard the division uses.
What the flash demo shows is the power of information that can be created when you start to link more than one factor. In this case the different forms of deals we make with customers and the resultant revenue over time. We have done this over time showing the previous 16 months history as it highlights the trends of cause and effect between different factors. We found it important to show changes over time as it is far better to monitor your acceleration (or deceleration) than it is your current speed.In addition we have the ability to drill down each management line to individuals. Added to this is a ranking process of outcomes delivered not just biggest sales made. The ranking process is not for persecution but to quickly find out who we need to talk to find out what is going on.
Another finding is that there is a large amount of variability in our processes. This variability leads to variable data which makes it very difficult to interpret hence the need to talk to the people at the coal-face to find out what is really going on. One of the other things we are working on is process improvement using the "Lean Thinking" approach to reduce variability.
In December we launched a new ordering tool which we hope will help standardise how new services are ordered and implemented which in turn will reduce variability.
Anyway my family and I are off on a world tour holiday, Paris, New York, Orlando, LA, Tokyo before coming home. I will let you know in the New Year what the executive response has been.
Happy Holidays,
Rob
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Thanks for sharing, Rob: a lot of leadership lessons so far
Happy Holidays, Rob. And thanks for sharing your fascinating scorecard journey so far. I've learnt a lot from it, not just about the mechanics of scorecards, but about gaining buy-in from people, being persistent and creative in the face of indifference or lack of understanding and inertia and fear of new ways of doing things (your Flash videos, for example: very creative way of leading upwards and sideways by using different media to educate and inform and persuade). ..all of which is highly useful learning about how to lead change against resistance and 'the way we've always done thing' in any context, as well as in the particular scorecard project example you are generously sharing with us here. If I had to pick out one of the learning points from your leadership of this project so far, Rob, out of the many I've picked up, it would be persistence and resilience: sticking to what you know is right and not giving up, even in the face of cynicism, hostility and lack of understanding from peers, other departments, 'superiors'. Sticking to your guns for the sake of what's right for the organization and its customers rather than conforming to existing culture for the sake of ease and career path is what great leaders do. Your leadership of your project exemplifies that, to me. All good wishes for 2008. Phil (Dourado)