Financial Performance Measures Resources

Please see below for our articles and newsletter archives.

Visit regularly for new articles or to read the latest Focal Point Newsletter.  If you would like to sign up for the Focal Point Newsletter you can do this by following the instructions to the right hand side of this screen.

Articles

Review previous articles and case studies in the resource library below. All articles are written by Steve Major, Managing Director of Major Focus Group.

The One Main Thing
The one main thing is what drives the business.  It is a critical lead indicator that reveals the health of a business.  What is the one main thing that your business needs to focus on?  In this article Steve helps you to understand why the one main thing and one main measure is so important to your business.  He provides some key questions to ask yourself so that hopefully you might be able to identify what the one main thing is that your business needs to focus on.

All Measures Will Be Gamed
The dynamics that are in play within the business and team must be understood.  Lin Yutang in The Importance of Living (1998) very succinctly puts in "In short, my faith in human dignity consists in the belief that man is the greatest scamp on earth."  It is only natural that people will try to take advantage of a measure in a business to 'game' the system - to interpret it in a way that makes it easier to achieve the number, or easier to obtain reward and recognition.  As humans, we will try to take advantage of any interpretation that we can to help ourselves.

Efficiency versus Effectiveness
Everyday we are confronted with the message, to be more efficient.  We could have the best measurement systems in place to measure the efficiency of the operations, but be producing the wrong thing or focusing on the wrong area - as a result, the business could fail, though it was highly efficient.  What is going to build the future of our business does not come through efficiency; it comes through effectiveness.

How the Right Information Can Mean Increased Profit
Business can get increasingly more complex as it grows. Gain a better understanding of your business and how it makes money by making sure you have the right information at your fingertips.  Just a few key decisions being made with reference to the right financial information can lead to an exponential difference in business performance.

Lead versus Lag; Future versus Past
Businesses are often encouraged to have an array of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) to ascertain how they are progressing.  Steve sees KPI's as important, but also encourages businesses to widen their scope.  He discusses the difference between lag and lead indicators and how we might drive and build future value within the business.

Moral Hazards of Metrics
Build on your awareness of moral hazards within business.  Steve touches on seven moral hazards within business - quantitative versus qualitative; creativity, innovation and intuition can be put aside with metrics; no evolution, efficiency versus effectiveness; myopia; assumptions and biases; looking backwards not forwards.  This article builds upon the work of Ron Baker of VeraSage Institute.

You may reproduce any of these original articles in your own e-zine, web site or print publication.  
Click Here for details.

Focal Point Newsletter

Focal Point Newsletter is a free newsletter published weekly, written especially for services businesses. Subscribers also receive updates on Major Focus Group events and special offers.

July 2010
20 July 2010 - Challenging Assumptions
12 July 2010 - Effectiveness versus Efficiency
6 July 2010 - Listen to the Facts, Not Your Gut

June 2010
29 June 2010 - Face the Facts
22 June 2010 - Thought Leadership
16 June 2010 - The One Main Thing
9 June 2010 - Informed decision making is a way of thinking
2 June 2010 -  Why don't we look at the facts?

May 2010
25 May 2010 - Quantitative and Qualitative Data
18 May 2010 - A New Way of Thinking
11 May 2010 - The One Main Thing