Vantage Blog

1. Lead and Lag indicators, what are you measuring?

When seeking to drive improved performance across your organization most business leaders focus their attention solely on key performance indicators (KPI’s) that are ‘lag’ indicators. Lag indicators are a signal of performance AFTER an outcome is achieve and include aspects such as new sales, profit, revenue and survey results. There is nothing wrong with these measures but in isolation they are only telling half of the performance story of your business and it’s typically too late to change anything. What organizations looking to drive improved performance should be focused on in combination with lag indicators are lead indicators of performance. Lead indicators are a signal of performance BEFORE an outcome is achieved and include aspects such as sales calls made, conversion rate of sales team, error rate on a production line and various productivity measures. Ensure in your own business both measures are focused to speed up the rate of performance improvement you are achieving.

2. Is your competitive advantage still a competitive advantage?

The current information age is allowing business leaders to gain access to new business insights rapidly via the web. Advances one company had over another don’t last very long. If your point of difference over your competitors for example was ‘quality’ but within 12 months the entire market are producing product at the same quality level what do you do? Reviewing your competitive advantage (using the sustainable competitive advantage tool) on at least an annual basis will assist you to ensure you assess what competitors are doing and also what the market is valuing. It will quickly challenge whether you still have a competitive advantage and, if not , what do you need to evolve to next. No longer can you stand still for long.