How Do We Get To EPM 2.0?
In my last blog, I discussed the new EPM demo I’d just seen and how EPM software still falls short of engaging the “senior executive team”. After all, they’re the ones driving the company forward and making sure that the corporate strategy is being communicated and executed.
My apologies if this is not what you want to hear but I’ve yet to stumble across a tool that brings it all together for the senior executive. I’m still looking for a tool that presents a corporate strategy all the way through execution; in a manner that can be consumed by the C Level. All I’ve seen so far are bits and pieces. Please feel free to comment!
So, how do we get to EPM 2.0?
- The old adage, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Strategies are meant to be discussed, dissected, challenged and cemented. The trick is to then take those strategies and apply drivers, insights and metrics across and deep into the organization. These become your leading and lagging indicators that (if done properly) are directly aligned with corporate strategy.
- Implement the new business processes needed to deliver and support the change in strategy. Everything from supply chain to market campaigns.
- Implement the new management processes as an overlay to the new business processes to execute the change in strategy.
- Enable the above with technology that cascades the strategy execution throughout the organization.
But wait, the above sounds like it’s missing the information delivery piece for the executive. You’re right….and no one is addressing it. Solution: put a gadget on the executive desktop with 4 indicators on it. Not 20 or 100, just 4. You creative types can envision a stop light, a happy face, a speedometer….semantics! These 4 indicators should be the 4 key drivers of the corporate strategy. At first glance they should tell the story; the whole story! The executive has the option to drill through the four indicators into the web of information below it or, they can pick up the phone to have someone in their company address it. That’s their call!
Point being, the closer you get to delivering EPM 2.0 the quicker you can maneuver your company. This assumes you buy into the value of leading and lagging indicators. If you do buy in and you do implement EPM 2.0 from top to bottom….it’s useless without the top brass seeing the 4 driving indicators of their corporate strategy. They need real time insight from a simple presentation layer or, they’ll never use it. If the senior executive team doesn’t drive the organization based on the status of these key strategic indicators then it’s not EPM 2.0. It’s features, functions, cool technology and fancy right mouse clicks!
