Why Does Every Public, For-Profit and Non-Profit Organisation Need KPIs?

If you only have rudimentary knowledge of KPIs and performance measurement, can you still lead a successful organisation?

Harald Matzke is our licensed PuMP provider to German-speaking countries. His journey with performance measurement began quite a few years ago, when he used PuMP to transform his previous company, cubus. Harald recently shared this (translated) comment in LinkedIn, which inspired this article:

“I’ve been wondering for a long time whether you can run a company successfully if you only have rudimentary knowledge of KPIs and performance measurement. In my opinion, the right set of KPIs is essential to successfully run a business and achieve set goals. I have seen in many companies where only ‘common’ KPIs, mostly from the financial sector, are used. This is not fundamentally wrong, but only mediocre.” — Harald Matzke

I believe that one reason we need good measurement for running any business or organisation is that ambiguity is the enemy of effectiveness and efficiency, and measurement goes a long way to removing ambiguity.

It does not matter the size, sector, industry or culture of an organisation. Leaders always have to deal with ambiguity. What continues to baffle me is why, as Harald also observes on the other side of the planet to me, the resistance leaders have to meaningful measurement.

Maybe you can help shed some light on this subject? I would love your answers to two questions:

1. How agreeable or resistant to better measurement is your leadership team?
2. What’s your best guess about why they are agreeable or resistant?

I have set up a survey for you to share your answers (with the option of sharing anything else you feel like). I’ll give it a few weeks, then share the results, along with some ideas and suggestions that my PuMP team and I have learned, which can help your leadership team be more open to better measurement.

Will you share one minute to contribute?

Every type of organisation needs good measurement because ambiguity is the enemy of effectiveness and efficiency, and measurement goes a long way to removing ambiguity. [tweet this]