Would you ever turn on a tap and then let the water run away and not capture it? What a waste of water that would be. And yet is what I see happening in business day in day out, however, its not water leaking but rather resources – particularly time, energy and money.
Yes, most businesses waste thousands and thousands of pounds very year because they are engaging in activities that are not joined up. In other words one activity does not lead to another because the systems are not Joined Up.
So how do you know if your systems are Joined Up? Well the best way is to ensure that you measure every aspect of the business. As Peter Drucker says “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
When you think about this quote, it should immediately become apparent how true it is. Because, if you can’t measure something, and know the results, you can’t possibly get better at it. For example, it’s nearly impossible to lose weight without stepping on a scale once in a while to measure your results – if you don’t, you have no idea if you are succeeding or not.
Now as some of you know I have recently taken up running and tracking my performance on a daily basis has become a habit. I now have a record of how far I have been running and how fast I have been going. Without this information I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to acknowledge the progress I have made.
Now, in business, Drucker’s quote is particularly true. If you can’t measure every part of your business, you can’t manage or grow it.
For example
- Do you know the number of new website visitors you received in the last 30 days?
- And do you know what percentage of them turned into new paying customers?
- And do you know how the level of satisfaction among your customers has fluctuated over time?
- And do you know the precise average lifetime value of your customers?
There are nearly 50 questions such as these that measure each aspect of your business and I list a selection of these in the resources section my book Unbridled Success.
And if you don’t know the answers, if you can’t measure them, then you can’t possibly manage or improve them and know if your systems are Joined Up. And unless you can identify where you are wasting resources you can never improve performance.
So I encourage you to look at your business and examine where you might be wasting resources. Putting in simple tracking systems (or business intelligence systems) is the best way i know to help keep you focused on what is a priority in your business. Without business metrics you might as well be driving (or riding) blind, with no visibility of what is really going on.
And if you need any help in putting business metrics in your business then please connect with me for an Unleash Your Business Potential Strategy Session, and I’ll help identify one action you can take right now to start you getting your systems Joined Up.
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Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
