Business Performance Research

What really affects Business Performance

What affects Business, Team, and People’s Performance?	Our research found many factors impacted performance Many were not obvious, but the whole picture became clearer when we conducted a detailed Cause & Effect Analysis using the evidence and insights from our research and guided by our own experiences with major corporations.
Tailored Cause & Effect Analysis Workshop Our analysis drilled down to the root causes/drivers of poor/good performance … at business, team, and individual level	We offer this Cause & Effect Analysis to clients tailored to their own organisation aimed at groups of business leaders or specific teams. This is an excellent training method in developing people’s understanding of Business Performance at all levels. It is also a highly effective technique for finding and planning performance improvements anywhere in the organisation because it is creative as well as analytical. This analysis stimulates ideas for solutions / improvements. See Business Improvement Workshops Some factors are obvious, such as Innovations that lead to competitive advantage. But our analysis worked out the root causes of poor performance and the drivers of good performance, eg what causes poor (or drives good) innovation, many of which are less 'obvious' or 'hidden'.
	Here is a selection of manageable factors that significantly affect performance (not in any order of importance, except the first two):
Clear Thinking	Thinking errors made by planning teams and leaders is the biggest cause of poor performance. And the key cause of Thinking Errors is subjectivity – no facilitator.
Fundamental Strategy	Deciding what an organisation should be selling/doing ... to/with whom ... where ... etc has a massive impact on performance.
Training & development	Especially in leadership. The many causes of poor learning include: ♦ the lack of evaluation of training ♦ fact that there are as many leadership training programmes as there are providers .
Marketing, Selling, and PR integration … and variability	We found tremendous variability in the effectiveness of Marketing and Selling even within the same organisation. Causes include the lack of Quality Assurance in these two key activities (until now); and poor integration or coordination of messages, especially in large organisations (eg in one case study a £multi-million advertising campaign was totally negated by poor Advertising/PR coordination).
Profitable Customer Focus, including Feedback Systems	Understanding customers’ real needs and wants; who really makes/influences decisions; developing ideas that appeal to customers and increase sales; effective feedback systems (many organisations make the dangerous assumption that minimal feedback means satisfied customers). Case Example: Xerox’s initial research indicated no demand for its copiers – they had asked the wrong ‘customers’.
Controls, Responsiveness, and Flexibility	Obvious, but many organisations are poor at designing, planning, operating, and evaluating these key coordinated activities. Case Example: GEC-Marconi’s top team made huge Strategic Thinking Errors, but the company ultimately failed because their businesses weren’t sufficiently flexible to cope with a sales downturn … despite Lord Weinstock’s £1billion cash cushion.
Knowledge management	Disseminating the learnings from mistakes and successes – this is a massive cause of poor performance right across the public sector. Many root causes.
Change planning and responsiveness	Many change programmes fail to achieve their objectives – we analysed the causes (eg no Thinking Process – change requires a multi-stage Thinking Process).
Team leadership	Our research found that one of the key reasons why people resign is because of their manager (but this is rarely reported or identified).
Reputation management	One company said its customers were to blame for injury resulting from using their products. The result: even more bad press. And Toyota’s image has been shattered because they allowed the situation to ‘accelerate’ beyond their control.
	How to Improve Business Performance – a Summary of our Services
Have a Demo	Email us for an introductory discussion and demonstration of our 4-stage Clear Thinking Process applied to any aspect of your business.