Optimising Business Performance to drive success

Organisations today are constantly under pressure to improve business performance, measure their own performance against world class standards and focus their efforts on the customer. Many use business excellence models to help them achieve their goals.

There are a number of techniques, recognised internationally, used to drive business performance and success, and any number of methodologies.

Let’s have a look at some of the concepts involved in business excellence;-

Performance measurement

Performance measurement is the regular measurement of outcomes and results, which produces quantifiable data that can be used to assess how an organisation, team or individual is performing against specified targets and objectives.

Benchmarking business performance

This is the process of making comparisons with other people, processes or businesses, in order to learn from others, establish best practice and improve performance. It can be informal, or formal.

Adopting Best Practices

This is systematically selecting the method that is proven to achieve the best results.

Quality management

Quality management began life in the 1920’s as product quality control in a production process, and involved inspection, sampling and testing. It has evolved to encompass all focused quality activity, and is sometimes known as Total Quality Management or TQM.

It will include all quality oriented programmes and strategies and may encompass customer focus and continuous improvement. In turn Total Quality Management evolved into Business Excellence.

Business Excellence

TQM is now often referred to as Business Excellence, and this is the use of certain models and concepts to identify best practice and implement it to manage an organisation effectively and achieve improved results.

Business Excellence models are used to drive business performance and competitiveness, and involve the adoption of proven strategies and business practices to optimise performance.

Business excellence models provide a framework designed to guide companies towards excellence.

What does Performance Measurement mean?

Performance means output results, or outcomes of processes or services that can be evaluated against goals or targets.

Measurement means information that quantifies input, output, and performance of processes or services,

We touched briefly on this earlier, let’s have look at it in more detail.

Management use the data to review and assess measures such as production, sales, or operating efficiency, to get an objective measure of how the business is operating and identify areas for improvement.

There are several performance measurement systems in use today.

A business may use performance measurement to measure and quantify its progress against targets and objectives defined in its strategy. Management will need to define the type and number of measures used, and consider the merits against the costs of introducing the measures. It is also important to consider how the results should be interpreted, used and acted on.

Factors to consider in designing a performance measurement system are;-

The measures to be selected
The unit of measurement
will the measurement be financial, subjective or quantifiable in terms of cost/benefit
the rationale for the measures i.e. how useful will the information be to management
Who will own the information
How will management use the information
Who in the management team will use the information
Cost/benefit analysis for the exercise

Consideration of these factors before the exercise is carried out will ensure time and resources spent will produce meaningful data that the management team can use to drive improved performance.