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I am looking for some direction. I have been asked to lead the development and establishment of Key Performance Indicators for the Marketing function (and help with KPI for other functions as well). I have a good grasp on KPI's but I am looking for a PROCESS to help work a group of General Managers through so as to get understanding and buy-in. Does anyone have a resource they are willing to recommend? Many thanks.

Mark's picture
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Gary-

Are you asking for a process to get buy in that doesn't really relate specifically to KPI's? If you are comfortable with KPI's, and they are too, it would seem to me you just need a standard brainstorming/consensus building process. Is that about right?

Mark

Gary King's picture

[quote]Are you asking for a process to get buy in that doesn't really relate specifically to KPI's? If you are comfortable with KPI's, and they are too, it would seem to me you just need a standard brainstorming/consensus building process. Is that about right? [/quote]

Mark-

My apologies. My post was worded poorly.

Yes, I will be leading an effort to both educate (to say that all participants understand the material would be incorrect) and build a consensus around a policy deployment and performance measuring business system.

Knowing that some (I have identified 2 of the 7) will at best be reluctant participants I want to make sure that the process I use, from the beginning, will give me the best chance of success. Stumbling out of the gate might be fatal to the project. The audience are all peers within the organization and we all report to the same person.

As I write this it does occur to me that my audience is in reality a bell curve, I have at least one participant that will be strongly in favor and, of course, the President of the company from whom I received the assignment.

I can stealth educate, what I am unsure about is how to best go about the consensus building.

Any thoughts or direction are greatly appreciated.

Gary

Mark's picture
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Gary-

That was helpful - thanks. Some questions.

How much time will you have?
Do you see the first part of the meeting as educating them on KPIs, or will they come in having their KPIs already figured out?
Do YOU "know" what the KPIs "should" be?
Does the President "know"?
Will these KPIs have serious power behind them afterwards? That is, will pay or bonus be affected, or will regular meetings with the Pres be forums to have to report on them? (I guess just for marketing....)

Just to be clear, if you can give me a sense of all this and perhaps a few more questions, I can give you an answer that will work.

Mark

Gary King's picture

[color=blue]How much time will you have?[/color]

For the intro meeting I have 2 hours on the agenda of a 2-1/2 day offsite. It is understood that this will be the kickoff of what will be a long-term project. Hence my concern of getting the process started successfully.

[color=blue]Do you see the first part of the meeting as educating them on KPIs, or will they come in having their KPIs already figured out? [/color]

More education on Policy Deployment process and therefore including the KPI concept. I would not expect them to have their KPI's already figured out. One or two already employ them to some degree. Others will shutter at the idea of being measured to a firm standard (they will exclaim "We already measure ourselves!", but in fact they do not or the measures are so soft as to be meaningless). Previous management ran a very soft ship, we are having to realign thinking (all while keeping the candy store running).

[color=blue]Do YOU "know" what the KPIs "should" be?[/color]

My thoughts are to start with pretty basic measures with the idea that during the implementation of this "business system" the KPI's will become more detailed and more specific and be pushed further down in the organization.

[color=blue]Does the President "know"? [/color]

We are in agreement.

[color=blue]Will these KPIs have serious power behind them afterwards? That is, will pay or bonus be affected, or will regular meetings with the Pres be forums to have to report on them? (I guess just for marketing....) [/color]

Yes, the incentive plans fall into the "business system". We intend to tie performance directly to the IC plans for the GM's and also down into each GM's organization. This business system will be implemented enterprise-wide. My role as marketing Director is expanding to include Business System development.

Gary

Mark's picture
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Gary-

Bloody hell, you're doing it right! Well done you!!

Great answers - very helpful.

Okay - this is NOT just for marketing, right?. You're facilitating everyone both coming up with KPIs for their area, and getting everyone to agree with everyone else's (or at least not scream bloody murder at someone else's). In other words, the entire org (Not just marketing) will be in the session, and you've got to lay out how they're going to come up with their KPIs in addition to you doing that for marketing....

Mark

Gary King's picture

Absolutely correct. All disciplines. Sorry for the misdirection (always wanted to do magic...)

Gary

Mark's picture
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One more question.

Is this group REALLY going to come up with the KPIs for the President? Are those up for discussion?

Hopefully you can see where I'm going. The President's ought to be simple...and then all others ought to flow from that. Getting everyone to work on all of them simultaneously has its problems...

H

Gary King's picture

[quote]Hopefully you can see where I'm going. The President's ought to be simple...and then all others ought to flow from that. Getting everyone to work on all of them simultaneously has its problems...
[/quote]

Mark-

At this point we are trying to accomplish two things.

One, some team building since previously management allowed, or at least did nothing about, silos.

Second, to move the group towards performance measurement.

If I get is kicked off right we can have the discussion and possobly even brainstorm on what, and then later move the top level KPI's to the President and have each GM create a supporting KPI. The President will go with this if benefits of understanding and team outweigh the downside problems. I am predicting we will have more trouble getting clearly defined and measureable KPI's more than trouble deciding if it narrow enough in focus.

I am going on the understanding that Policy Deployment is about changing processes, i.e., moving them to towards breakthrough objectives (current state to future state), and KPI is used primarily for measuring processes that are in place and working properly.

Is there another disection?

Gary