Chapter 7 - How to measure the success of your strategic plan - use milestones to keep your business on track
After you’ve put in the hard work of creating a strategic plan, make sure it stays on track by using metrics to check its progress.
The action plan you develop to support your business strategy should list the metrics you will track. These can be divided into milestones (the completion of a task or project by a certain date) and quantifiable performance measures (such as revenue and profit growth, for example).
The choice of milestones is unique to each business. Milestones can be such tasks as the launch of a website, purchasing a piece of equipment or a vehicle, hiring key staff or obtaining a business loan.
For performance measures (often known as key performance indicators or KPIs), there are many options. Choosing the right ones to follow can be difficult, but it’s important to decide carefully because these metrics will be the focus of effort in your company.
Here are 4 tips on selecting and using these measures.
- Tie to strategic objectives- some metrics will be financial, such as profit, revenue and cash flow. You may also decide to track metrics related to marketing and/or sales goals. Your metrics should be clearly tied to your strategic objectives.
- Keep it simple - Don't overload staff with too many KPI's to track.
- Maintain up-to-date data - Be sure your measures include the latest data and are reported promptly within your company.
- Use dashboards - performance dashboards are an excellent tool for tracking your KPI's
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