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Five Considerations to Transform Data into Insights through Effective Business Reporting

Five Considerations to Transform Data into Insights through Effective Business Reporting

by | Jul 7, 2021 | Business, Business Operations, Communication, Leadership, Management, Performance, World of Work

Today in businesses, we are not short of data. There are more than enough data points available through multiple channels for us to organize, analyze and review to our heart’s content or discontent as the case may be. Knowledge, insights and getting to actionable recommendations by sifting through this voluminous data is the difficult part. This is where effective Business reporting (or management reporting or enterprise reporting) can serve as a medium to provide knowledge in a form that enables the key-stakeholders to make informed decisions at the right time for sustained organizational success.  Management Reporting is an art and there is no single common method or set of steps to get this right. What does help though is keeping in mind the real goal behind all the reams of business reports you generate – enable the leadership to understand quickly what is going on in the business and to decide what to do with it. The business operations team can act as a primary driver in this area through creating and fine-tuning the business reporting process in the organization.

We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely ~ E. O. Wilson

I have been doing business reporting for many years now and have to keep reinventing my style to suit the organization I work with every so often. However, I have found the following common considerations useful for making this function effective:

Consideration #1: Focusing on what’s Important –

Take some time to define the goal or the purpose of the report. To do this you need to sit with the primary intended audience of the report and agree on the area of decision-making that they want the report to support – it could be financial approvals, resource allocations, operational planning, strategic directions, opportunity qualifications etc. Once you have the purpose, focus on the primary audience themselves – what is their working style preferences (highlights vs. details), understanding level (use of terminology and technical complexity), position in the organization (authority for info provided and decisions to be made) and priorities (to determine the flow of report). Agree on the format (presentation, word document, excel sheet or visual dashboard) that the audience is most comfortable with upfront – this is important as it allows decision makers to focus on the content rather than the form. With the purpose, the level and the format of the reporting well-defined and understood, it becomes easier to focus on the data needs of the report.

Consideration #2: Source of Data –

Determine the sources that can provide you with reliable, accurate and updated data to generate the report. It is highly unlikely that a single source of data can give you the information necessary to prepare a management report. Data could come directly through systems (if you are lucky) but you may still need inputs from multiple people in the organization to give colour to the data.  So once you know what information needs to be captured, processed, analyzed, and reported, spend time in organizing the information processes and related systems for effective reporting. You don’t want to spend time running around fighting through organizational silos and inadequate data collection systems to get the relevant data in the format you want from the systems or following up with stakeholders endlessly for their inputs. Work with the relevant people to align the systems to your business reporting needs and ensure that the reporting process and timelines are well-defined and communicated with all the stakeholders who need to provide inputs. The quality and integrity of the data sources will determine the quality and integrity of your report.

Consideration #3: Analyzing and Interpreting the Data –

Now that you have the goal, the format and the source of data set, it is time now to extract knowledge from the data, analyze it and interpret it to a form that will lend itself to effective decision-making. With the advent of big data and business intelligence tools, there are many off-the-shelf products that promise useful insights with a few clicks. It would be really nice if things were actually that easy – nothing so far has convinced me to stop using my brain as the best tool I have at my disposal when I do my reporting :). While data and analytic tools can bring in precision and help accelerate the whole process through saved time and efforts, once data from various sources is collated and information is extracted, the real value that an individual can bring in is yes – connecting all the dots together. We need to keep in mind a few questions while sifting through the data and deciding what to present – what do the numbers/feedback/results mean? How do they impact the problems that we have on hand or that could arise and the decisions that need to be taken? What are the options we have for the actions that need to be taken? This approach needs domain experience, understanding of the organizational dynamics and analytical skills (and hence the heavy dependency on the human brain).

Consideration #4: How Much is Too Much? –

There are two parts to this – the level of detail and frequency of reporting needed. And for what to do here, you have to go back to the purpose of the report and who the primary audience is. For the first part, the reporting team needs to determine the optimal amount of details to make decisions and discard all the other data collected for “just in case” and “good to have” scenarios. Avoid reporting just for the sake of reporting – because you have the data, because you have a lot of time in your hands or you bring in your personal need to impress the management. That way, soon the cost of knowing outweighs the value of knowing. This is why I said earlier, management reporting is an art – you have to balance the how’s with the what’s to hit the “right” spot for the organization. If the report answers these three questions in the best way possible – how have we done so far, where are we headed and what we need to do to arrive at the performance objectives – you have achieved the goal of the report no matter what it is. You also have to set the reporting cadence and communication. How often do you need to generate the reports to ensure that the insights remain meaningful and not repetitive or in the other extreme – hindsight knowledge too late to do anything about? Along with the primary audience, who else would benefit or be affected from the decisions taken by the primary audience from the reported insights? These are important aspects to consider in setting up the reporting process and mechanics.

Consideration #5: Tracking Desired outcomes and Continuous improvement –

Once you get the reporting right, it is time to make it effective in reality. Set up a mechanism to track the decisions made as an outcome of your reports to ensure that all the hard work that has gone into preparing the report is not wasted. Record the minutes and the actions and ensure that the stakeholders are aware and have the additional information they need to act upon the decisions. And finally, as business environments, leadership and performance objectives change, information requirements also change over time. Hence, we need to periodically review the reporting process and the reports themselves and put them through a continuous improvement cycle to ensure that they remain effective and useful.

Does this sound like a lot of work? It is but if you get this right, you have a unique opportunity to expand your influence while supporting the goals of the management because you are helping transform data into insights – critical to creating value and ultimately, increasing the competitive advantage for the organization.

So do you still think business reporting is a boring and non value-adding activity? What unique perspective do you put into your reports ? What do you expect from the reports that your team generates for you? I would love to hear back and learn for you?

Picture Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26341587@N04/4280203413/

Business Operations Performance Challenges – Five Barriers to Operational Excellence

Business Operations Performance Challenges – Five Barriers to Operational Excellence

by | Mar 8, 2021 | Business, Business Operations, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity

~A company can seize extra-ordinary opportunities only if it is very good at the ordinary operations. – Marcel Telles~

Top-line (Revenue) and bottom-line (Profit) growth are the two priorities that consistently show up in all reports on 2012 business trends. So, how do you ensure that your profits are growing while staying focused on achieving revenue growth? This is where excellence in Business Operations  becomes critical. Operational Excellence is a philosophy of leadership, teamwork and problem solving resulting in continuous improvement throughout the organization by focusing on the needs of the customer, empowering employees, and optimizing existing activities in the process (From Wiki). When people, processes and systems in a business are operating at 100% efficiency and productivity, excellence becomes a given and business goals and priorities no longer remain a wish-list.

In an ideal world, this should be an easy to achieve state – after all why would anyone not want their organization to succeed or why would systems and process not work at 100% efficiency?   I have written about how Business Operations can drive strategy to implementation in earlier posts. Today’s post is focused on the barriers within the organization that limit companies from achieving operational excellence:

Barrier # 1 – Organizational Silos (or Lack of Collaboration): Continuous improvement can only occur and be sustainable if there is a well-coordinated exercise that combines discrete steps into a combined effort. This is very difficult to do if each function in an organization acts independently and does not take into account how and where other functions can contribute to their improvement plans. Duplicate efforts, battles for credit and “left hand does not know what right hand is doing” scenarios become common-place leading to confusion and counterproductive results. If only everyone could sit together and collaborate to build and act on one plan that has a common goal and clear accountability for the steps necessary to achieve that, operational strategies would be so much easier to execute.

Barrier # 2 – Lack of Granular Information: As Sir Arthur C, Clarke said, it is vital to remember that information — in the sense of raw data — is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these. Financial systems crunch revenues and costs into categories that work well for financial reporting but are not granular enough for effective operations management. Not knowing what you don’t know is a big barrier to do any kind of realistic performance management. Multiple data sources and non-transparency in the sharing of information lead to conflicting information and thus to incorrect planning.  A year-long data and knowledge management strategy is a must for the successful creation of any plan that depends on trends and analysis.

“Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared vision. – Peter Senge”

Barrier #3 – Not enough Senior Management Commitment and Buy –In: This is one area that needs the full support of senior management in terms of consistency in direction setting and the will to enforce the much needed discipline. The functions are usually not well-aligned to the overall business goals – for example, sales runs after revenue growth and does not care about profitable growth, finance pushes for bottom-line  at the cost of top line improvement, delivery gives meeting milestones priority over costs. The message from the powers above on the business priorities needs to be loud and clear and consistent throughout the organization to create a culture where responsibility for performance is pervasive, accountable, and aligned.

Barrier #4 – Poor Planning for Success: Flawed processes for the basic building blocks of planning, budgeting and forecasting throws the entire year out of balance. Too often, these processes are executed in a top-down manner with no tying-in of the strategic goals to the execution steps. People lose focus and direction when they can’t envisage exactly how they are contributing to the high level goals. Whether it be an annual or a quarterly exercise, clear guidelines for planning and execution of the plans goes a long way to ensure that you retain sufficient control over where and how operations needs to focus on during the period to meet the business goals.

Barrier #5 – Outdated Systems and Technology: Legacy performance management systems and spreadsheet-based processes bog down managers in endless detail and eat up large amounts of their time trying to shuffle between systems and sheets and integrate the output of multiple systems. They spend 80% of time getting the systems to work for them and 20% of time on actually executing on the information (Pareto at work again). This is a huge pain point, and one that champions of business performance management (BPM) initiatives often target first. Getting your technology updated to best support your business objectives is a good investment and worth every penny in the long run – as it frees up your resources to spend more time on analysis and execution.

That said, these barriers are not ones that cannot be overcome with a little bit of focus and a lot of effort. With the right tools in place supported by smart people, realistic planning, and the desire to catalyze positive change across the organization, it is indeed possible to make significant improvements to accelerate the journey towards operational excellence.

I would love to hear back from you on your experiences with performance initiatives? What worked and what did not? What were the barriers that you faced in implementing operational strategies?

5 Small Investments you Can Make to Boost Employee Engagement

5 Small Investments you Can Make to Boost Employee Engagement

by | Jan 18, 2018 | Management, World of Work

Employee engagement is not just another buzzword or a metric that your organization needs to keep track of. It is all about creating a work space, where your employees can get up in the mornings and say, “Great, I’m going to work. I know what I’m going to do today. I’ve got some great ideas about how to do it really well. I’m looking forward to seeing the team and helping them work well today”. (source)

The best definition we could find on what employee engagement really means is this, “Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organisation to give of their best each day, committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being” (source: engageforsuccess.org).

The process of employee engagement is a continuous one which begins during the on-boarding process – right at the outset, and carries on. And to really make employee engagement a continuous process, one of the best ways to go about it is through making small investments, which make a big difference.

Here are five proven ways of increasing employee engagement, without having to spend any money (or atleast not much).

  1. Creating a culture of Mentoring

    Bringing about changes to the organizational culture is often hard, but without a doubt, one of the best ways to bring about the change you want to see in your organization. Having a culture of mentorship or mentoring, within your organization is a great way to boost employee engagement. When your employees know they can reach out to trusted mentors within the work place to help them address issues they are facing at work, or help them be more productive with valuable guidance, it provides a definite boost to the levels of their engagement.

  2. Recognizing the value of Mental Health

    Making investments in caring for your employees’ mental health should not be an exception anymore, but a rule. While countries in the West have started taking mental health awareness and interventions with more seriousness than before, India though picking up pace, still has a long way to go. To let your employees know that their mental health comes before anything else, is an indispensable way of you showing that you care. And a place where employees feel cared for, will be a place they will devote their 100% to. Have you read our previous blogs on metal health yet? And do you believe that mental health should be your number one resolution for 2018? If you don’t, maybe you should have a look at this.

  3. Recognizing the value of Feedback

    Without a system of regular and consistent feedback, there can be no way for employees to know how they are faring. Their growth may be stunted, and despite possessing talent and skills to mature within the organization, they might begin to slack. This is the very reverse of what employee engagement aims for. Creating a system of feedback goes a long way in ensuring employee and employer satisfaction. Issuing constructive and timely feedback helps employees to stay focused and confident to do their best.

  4. Recognizing the value of Flexibility

    By giving your employees the gift of “choices”, you move towards creating a workplace with significantly higher levels of employee engagement. Making space for flexible conditions for work is a powerful way of boosting productivity. For example, many organizations still associate the option of working from home as one that triggers lower levels of productivity. Research though, has shown results quite contrary to this assumption.  Allowing your employees flexible schedules, and the option of working from home could actually be a win-win situation for both parties!

  5. Implanting Trust

    Trust perhaps, is the single most important investment you can make in your employees. Think back to the process of recruitment you may have, and you will realize how most of the process was in fact a scrutiny of whether you can trust the job you want to give out, at the hands of the person you are looking to hire. It is the same trust that must be preserved and nurtured after you complete the process of hiring and the recruit glides into his/ her role. Matters like choosing to delegate (and then letting go until the completion of the task!), being open to new ideas, being open to flexibility and feedback, are some small yet significant ways that help you show that you trust your employees. Could there be a better way of keeping them engaged, and happy? We think not!

Still wondering what employee engagement is all about?

Your employees can said to be truly “engaged”, when they are committed and motivated towards what they have been entrusted to do. And it leads to happier workplaces and happier bottom-lines.

5 Basic Technology Skills Every Employee Must Have

5 Basic Technology Skills Every Employee Must Have

by | Jan 10, 2018 | Career, World of Work

Whether you are a journalist, an entrepreneur or an architect, there are certain basic technology skills that every employee needs to be familiar with. Basic technology skills are a hit not just with recruiters, but also a necessity as per industry standards. Also, spending some time to acquire these tech skills can take you a long way in terms of being self-sufficient. What are some of the must have technology skills? Read on to know!

  1. Emailing

    While many of you would think this barely belongs in this list, because it goes without saying for one to be familiar with this skill. However, it is not enough to just know how to email. Knowing basic email etiquette, and how to structure emails is an equally important aspect. Paying attention to the font style, font size, subject line, how you greet and sign off, and even spacing of the paragraphs – these are some of the skills you need to apply while using  email. These little things do go on to make a big impact. Read here for the basics for writing a professional email.

  2. Being familiar with Spreadsheets

    Whoever thought knowing how to work with spreadsheets is just for accounting roles and the likes, could not be more mistaken. Almost every imaginable white collar  job today needs one to have at least basic spreadsheet skills. Familiarizing yourself with tools and techniques of spreadsheets will help you take on tasks with greater efficiency. There are ample courses online to help you learn the basics of Excel. For a crash course however, have a look at these tips and tricks for Excel. 

  3. Presentation Skills

    Once again, regardless of which sector you work in, knowing how to create visually compelling presentations is a skill that will take you a long way. Moreover, all employers look for this skill as an expected pre-requisite in the skill set of potential employees. While pitching an idea or during discussions, you can create compelling presentations with basic tools to get your point across in an impactful and effective manner. Many online platforms offer basic courses that you can master in as little time as 4 weeks! Check platforms like Coursera for courses that might interest you.

  4. Key-board Shortcuts

    Knowing small tech hacks can indeed boost your productivity to a great extent. It is a worthwhile effort to learn the basic shortcuts for actions like copying, pasting, switching tabs, and so on, for the device you use to work on. To learn the short cuts for Apple, click here. To learn the short cuts for Windows, click here.

  5. Social Media Awareness

    Being aware of, and having a presence on social media is a sought after trait by most companies. In fact, many recruiters go through the social media profiles of prospective candidates before shortlisting them for a role. How you use social media can have a profound effect on your career – for the better or for the worse. Knowing how to use platforms like LinkedIn is crucial and can give you leverage in terms of your reach. Just being social media savvy is not enough, it is also important to know the social mistakes you cannot afford to make as a professional. Want to know more? Read here.

Many competent professionals still may prefer manual functioning to technology, however, without basic tech skills, one might end up missing out on opportunities. Indeed, a lot of times it is also inertia to learn or adapt to what seems difficult at first. But as most of us know from experience, it is simply a bridge that must be crossed and you will realize that acquiring skills is only a way of being more productive and doing more!

Happy life-long learning!

Why is Feedback Important?

Why is Feedback Important?

by | Jul 13, 2017 | Business Operations, Communication, Management, Performance

The world that we inhabit today, is characterized most frequently by the relationship between consumers and service providers. The reason being, a majority of our actions are defined by either consumption or provision of services. We could be at the receiving end or at the end of delivery, whether directly or indirectly. Regardless, it is a present continuous action. Starting from the Ubers we ride in, to the food we eat at restaurants, to the ever so frequently used online shopping and delivery services, or even the work that we do at our respective workplaces every day – there is one common thread binding all of this, which is the action of providing and receiving services.If services are such a crucial part of our everyday lives, why then do we take the one mechanism in place which ensures its smooth and efficient delivery for granted? Namely, feedback.

Its importance cannot be stressed enough. One might dismiss the importance of feedback by saying, “what’s the use, I am not going to be taken seriously”. Or, “oh it doesn’t matter, (s)he doesn’t really know what they’re speaking about”, if we’re receiving feedback.

However that is no longer the case. Why? Because of the stiff competition between the service providers of the same services. The one thing that sets them apart is how valuable they consider feedback and incorporate the same into their services. Which is why feedback in the world of services today is very relevant and important. And when we say services, we don’t just mean the large-scale services, we mean just any kind of service – even the kind that you deliver every day at work.

What are some other ways in which feedback is crucial? Have a look –

  1. You get a sense of direction and purpose

    It is only with appropriate feedback or constructive criticism that you realize how much progress you’re making in what you’re doing. Proper, articulate feedback helps you understand how far you’ve come, and how much further you see yourself going. You realize what’s working and what’s not, and it spurs you to think of ways to take yourself closer to what you envision as your purpose.

  2. It inhibits stagnation

    Without constructive criticism and feedback, it is easy to develop a sense of complacency. You keep doing things in a fixed manner without knowing if you’re really moving closer to your objective and goals. While you may not necessarily get worse at what you’re doing, it won’t be possible to get any better either. Having a system of feedback and incorporating the same into your work gets rid of the otherwise inevitable stagnation.

  3. It fosters growth and evolution

    With feedback, you understand which direction you need to push harder in. It also makes you realize if you need to change your approach and adapt to new environments. That is exactly how you learn and evolve as individuals and not surprisingly, even as businesses/ services. It helps you realize if the work that you’re doing is adding value in any way, and if it isn’t how do you change your game plan to evolve.

  4. A sense of fulfillment

    Feedback doesn’t necessarily have to be just negative. It can also be positive. In fact, every time you appreciate a particular service, let them know why you liked it. Remember that you would feel valued as well, if someone told you that you were doing a good job. It goes without saying that getting positive feedback for your work is a very motivating and fulfilling feeling. It cements your sense of purpose and gives you confidence to forge ahead in the direction you have imagined.

The process of giving and receiving feedback is not easy, and is a matter of responsibility at both ends of the spectrum.

Very often, we are quick to deliver feedback in what one may call “absolute” terms, without really considering our thoughts carefully. Karen Naumann in her article on why feedback is important makes a very valid point when she speaks about how it is important to be “professional” and “kind” while delivering feedback –

“So, before we give someone feedback, we really need to check our own motives and current mood whether we feel stressed, annoyed, jealous, afraid, or simply have antipathy towards the other person. And then it is on us to really look at the performance of the other person professionally and kindly, with the goal of helping them unlock their greatest potential.

On the flip side however, that’s also exactly why giving and receiving feedback is not easy for any of us, whether it is positive or “negative” nature. It really does require a great amount of one of our most difficult lifelong tasks called self-reflection, as well as humbleness and openness to different opinions and thoughts on the giver’s and receiver’s end.”

What is your opinion on how important feedback is? How are the processes of giving and receiving feedback different? Want the world of work to be able to learn through your experience? Let us know about your thoughts right here!