Performance magazine printed edition 2/2015

Issue Vol. 1 (2015) No. 2

INTERVIEWS ACADEMICS. PRACTITIONERS. CONSULTANTS. Insights from practice AROUND THE WORLD GRUMA MEXICO: A performance model built on innovation GOVERNMENTAL PERFORMANCE: The Illinois Department Public of Health ARTICLES HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR DECISION-MAKING PROCESS? EMERGING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT TRENDS IN 2015 + LIFESTYLE, HARDWARE & SOFTWARE, AND RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

PORTRAIT

RAVEE RAMAMOOTHIE

Commitment to performance, commitment to people.

INDEMNITY STATEMENT

Š 2015 The KPI Institute Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

ID Number: TKI0151051 ISBN-13: 978-1519204837 ISBN-10: 1519204833 An appropriate citation for this magazine is: The KPI Institute, Performance Magazine, no. 2, December, 2015, Melbourne, Australia Indemnity statement: The KPI Institute has taken due care in preparing the analysis contained in this publication. However, noting that some of the data used for the analysis has been provided by third parties, The KPI Institute gives no warranty to the accuracy, reliability, fitness for purpose, or otherwise of the information. The KPI Institute shall have no liability for errors, omissions, or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

Published by:

The KPI Institute Headquarters: Melbourne Office Life.lab Building, 198 Harbour Esplanade, Suite 606 Melbourne Docklands, VIC 3008, Australia Telephone Headquarters: +61 3 9028 2223 Middle East Division: +971 4 311 6556 European Division: +40 3 6942 6935 South East Asia Division: +60 3 2742 1357 E-mail: office@kpiinstitute.org www.kpiinstitute.org DECEMBER 2015

1

CONTENTS

RAVEE RAMAMOOTHIE Commitment to performance, commitment to people.

PORTRAIT

INTERVIEWS

AROUND THE WORLD

34

3 ARTICLES

44

NEWS

6 Strategy and Performance Management

44 50 54 60 64 66 68

Ahmed Ragab Bert de Winter Luis Gargalo Michael J. Sutton Mohammed Yassine Musa Bulus

Strategy and Business Planning 12 Employee Performance Management Performance Measurement 14 Innovation Performance Performance Improvement 15 Risk Management 16 17 19 ASK THE EXPERTS 22 25 LIFESTYLE

PORTRAIT

30 HARDWARE

80

AROUND THE WORLD

34 SOFTWARE

83

USA Mexico North America UAE

34 RECOMMENDED RESOURCES 36 38 Books 40 Films

85

INTERVIEWS

DECEMBER 2015

14

EDITOR’S NOTE

COVER STORY

2

30

70 71

85 86

Aurel Brudan CEO, The KPI Institute

With these thoughts in mind, we proudly announce the launch of our second issue of Performance Magazine, the winter edition. Performance Magazine is The KPI Institute’s prime resource for insights into the discipline of Performance Management.

Diana Zărnescu Head of Publishing & Media

Encompassing The KPI Institute’s experience, research and expertise, PERFORMANCE Magazine – Printed Edition, transfers its knowledge into a multitude of resources made accessible to a worldwide readership. The content published in Performance Magazine pursues high and wide for some of the best, the latest and the most pressing topics of discussion in Performance Management and in adjacent areas of interest.

EDITORIAL TEAM

This winter’s number plunged into the subjects of Performance Measurement and Improvement, KPIs, Balanced Scorecard Systems, Strategic Planning, Innovation and Risk Management, among others.

Adrian Brudan General Manager TKI – EMEA

Andrei Costea Editor & Publisher Specialist

MARKETING Diana Butean Head of Marketing

DESIGN Javier Rocha Head of Graphic Design

EDITOR’S NOTE

STAFF EDITORIAL COORDINATION

With the final month of 2015 under way, the time is just right to look back and remember what this year has introduced in terms of discipline evolution, milestones breached and relevant changes. It’s also a time of renewal, when we can peek into what lies in store for 2016 and find out about the trends we have isolated for the future period. One constancy is that we are closing in on a new age for Performance Management, an age defined by maturity, engagement and connectivity.

Flip through pages of interviews with renowned experts, extensive research studies, concept presentations, insights from practice, alongside software or hardware reviews, and books and movie recommendations, all related to performance management.

December’s Performance Magazine focused on one subject matter expert who is close to The KPI Institute and its numerous connections: Ravee Ramamoothie, a lead figure in the world of automatized Performance Management, integrating people, operations and strategies into intuitive and organic platforms. Through his passion for education, poeple and work ambition, Ravee models the mentalities of those surrounding him, on an everyday basis.

Lastly, as the year 2015 draws its final breaths, we also look back on ourselves and our personal development, within the past 12 months. Where was I in December, 2014? What was I doing differently then and what have I improved since that moment in time? Certainly, we all have grown and improved and, often enough, we made our fair share of mistakes. But we never stopped learning, evolving, and most importantly, we improved And if you recognize yourself in the above sequence of events, then 2015 was a good year because it concludes with improvement.

So now we invite you to take part in a world dedicated to integrating performance and all that is comprised in the search for improvement, in its smallest details.

Enjoy this December’s Performance Magazine!

We are always interested in gaining insights from practitioners who activate in a multitude of environments. Contact us at editor@kpiinstitute.org if you are interested in becoming a Guest Editor, or having your interview featured in PERFORMANCE Magazine.

Diana Zărnescu Head of Publishing & Media, The KPI Institute DECEMBER 2015

3

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Certified Benchmarking Professional Benchmarking methodological uniqueness is represented by the identification and analysis of the processes that lead to a superior performance of a company, offering the opportunity to compare an organization’s performance against industry competitors.

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To browse through our upcoming training courses visit our online store at: store.kpiinstitute.org/scheduled-courses

NEWS

NEWS

> Can you hear the music? or how KPIs can alter reality The mobile music app, Shazam, although highly popular among music enthusiasts and not only, is now facing serious performance pitfalls as, despite a clearly registered growth rate, has turned little to no profit.

The losing perspective: Although with over 120 million users worldwide, the enterprise reported heavy losses over an extended period of time, as Music Business Worldwide puts out for the record.

In the second quarter of 2013, Shazam reported net losses of 5.76 million pounds, a downfall which only deepened from thereon to 14.84 million pounds, in 2014. The total amount leaked by Shazam sums up to approximately 25 million pounds in net losses.

The wining perspective: But the people at Shazam aren’t too concerned. Their main KPI for measuring the company’s performance is revenue and, with that in mind, their 2014 was, in fact, a good fiscal year, having reported revenues of up to 16.89 million pounds for the last 6 months of 2013, a sum which only grew in 2014 by another 16%, thus leading to a total turnover of 36.01 million pounds.

The realistic perspective: So what for some seemed as a very grim reality, turned out to be a successful path, for others.

This is why KPIs can make or break a business. Selecting the proper KPIs to measure performance levels of the elements that show real success of one’s actions will be the light at the end of the tunnel.

6

DECEMBER 2015

> Performance in the big league – An Enel strategy Performance and sustainability – all in one package. These are the hallmarks of Enel’s vision for the future. When Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel – Italy’s largest power company and the second largest utility listed in Europe, spoke at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit of 2015, many were eager to hear the business leader’s ideas for shaping a better tomorrow. And he delivered.

energy used, the power being drawn, and the tariff and contract the customer is on.

This way, disputes regarding contracts, bills, payments of any sorts. As such, the company reaped many benefits:

Starace announced that he, together with his company, plan on undergoing a dualsided transformation, in order to attain and maintain a certain level of performance and sustainability. One transformation takes place internally, while the other focuses on an external perspective.

Secondly, regarding any external transformations and plans, Enel is set to outperform its competitors by ascribing to some of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals:

First off, he will be asking some 70.000 employees to find new and engaging ways to revitalize their workplace. Having reimagined his internal management system, he asked for a greater degree of control and authority on behalf of the consumer, coupled with more ideating from his staff, in order to discover novel methods of delivering their services.

Thus, Enel repurposed their 37 million meters, across all of Italy, to serve as smart grids, allowing Italians enhanced administration over their consumption of energy. Enel’s Telegestore meters display the

a greater focus on meeting performance targets; more leeway to focus on renewables research; the ability to further expand their services.

the 4th (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education); the 7th (ensure access to energy); the 8th (promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and entrepreneurial development); the 13th (taking urgent action to combat climate change).

So, at the end of the day, Enel shows why they are so dominant on the market – having a plan for everything, both for self-development and helping others reach higher levels of growth, pays great social and financial dividends at the end of the day. Ensuring that the company is performing at max capability, whilst maintaining a protective gaze over those in need, make Enel a role model among its peers.

NEWS

> Volkswagen: improving performance the wrong way Following a worldwide recalling scandal which disgraced the car manufacturer Toyota in the public eye, this year yet another industry peer has drawn public attention to their unethical business conduct.

However, VW may already be stepping sideways. Their financial estimates resulted in $7.3 billion costs, which the company said they would put aside to cover all expenses the emissions scandal had set loose.

Volkswagen misinformed about the fuel emission levels for several car models.

These were 40 times higher than initially declared. The manufacturer directed energy and money into creating a device that could deceive the standard emission measurement tools into thinking that the car’s emissions were actually within limits.

However, the Swiss from Credit Suisse, a financial services holding, calculated VW’s overall costs to $86 billion. As opposed to the $7.3 billion VW first approximated, this second estimation seems ludicrous. The numbers point out that at least one of these 2 estimations has not been accurately calculated.

The VW scandal began in the US, when the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) first found out about what is now called the “diesel dupe.” After that, it spread to the UK, Italy, France, South Korea, Canada and, of course, Germany.

Given the dimensions of this scandal and the popularity that the carmaker enjoyed prior to its unraveling, the manner in which VW manages this situation will define how their image will come out.

The previously mentioned Toyota car recalling scandal showed how through transparency and openness, one company can obtain public forgiveness and redeem itself in front of its fans and customers.

However, the first outcomes following the emissions revealing has not shown any strains on Volkswagen. Although the manufacturer did not register huge profits, it did not register any pitfalls either.

What’s more surprising is the fact that the company sold 156 more cars this year, in comparison to the previous year. From their point of view, their business is currently stagnating. However, according to Autodata, VW has been selling 18.17 million vehicles annually, a figure which did not decrease as of august, 2015, after the diesel dupe came to light.

The true figure though, is that in the last 7 years, VW has been shipping out cars with 40 times more nitrogen oxides than currently permitted by the USA’s EPA standards.

> Performance Management in Namibia: contracts for all ministers The Government of Namibia has prepared performance contracts to be signed by all ministers, as Prime Minister Saara KuugongelwaAmadhila announced earlier this week.

These contracts, together with other performance requirements that have already come into action, will consign government representatives to assist and support citizens by implementing what is called a citizen charter.

These charters are public agreements that create a link between service providers and citizens in terms of standards and expectations that the latter have concerning the former’s service delivery quality.

“A citizen charter will typically focus on the commitment of an OMA (e.n. offices, ministries, and agencies) towards its citizens in respect of standard of services, information, choice and consultation, nondiscrimination and accessibility, grievance redress, courtesy and value for money,” explained Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.

These performance contracts and other similar agreements are all part of the Performance Management System that the Namibian Government implemented back in 2004. Setting aside the natural fluctuations in initiatives that have been launched and dropped, ever since its implementation, the present contracts bring “a fresh dimension to performance management,” in the Prime Minister’s words.

Most importantly, these contracts pave the way towards cascading the obligations that ministers share with the president, and ensuring a greater degree of activity synchronicity between higher and lower hierarchical levels.

DECEMBER 2015

7

NEWS

> Reaping rewards, increasing productivity All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, is how an English saying goes. Fast-forward to the 21st century and we can adapt it to sound less catchy, but equally valuable: all work and no reward makes people unengaged.

> Sweden said “Yes!” to the 6-hour working day As of October, 2015, the Swedish workforce underwent a change that brought about a major impact on its organizational culture: switching to a 6-hour working day.

Sweden took this change believing that employees will become happier and productivity levels will rise.

Employers across Sweden, from hospitals, to car centers and even to retirement homes are embracing this switch open-heartedly.

Two companies who had already implemented the 6-hour working day for a year or more reported that turnover rates collapsed after this change, their staff was increasingly more engaged and satisfied and profits registered a boost.

On the other hand, in order for this 6-hour schedule to function, distractions such as social media need to be kept to a minimum, as well as meetings, along with all other productivity downers.

As the advantages of the 6-hour schedule are quite obvious, the benefits of the traditional 8-hour working interval are rooted in the 18th century when civil rights activist Robert Owen demanded an 8-hour working day based on the: “Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest” slogan, since the employees of that time used to labor for as long as 16 hours a day. However, this schedule might not address the 21st century needs of organizations and employees alike.

With cooperation and understanding, both employees and employers can garner more benefits from a 6-hour working day than from the classic 8-hour one.

8

DECEMBER 2015

When it comes to effort, we seldom enjoy working in vain, because it essentially means we are doing something for nothing; as such, rewards are a significant part of today’s work environment and culture. But don’t be mistaken, rewards don’t have to be merely monetary.

For journalists, it can be the number of views or comments on a piece of writing. For those who work in design, architecture or the construction industry, seeing a project come to life can also count as a reward.

To give this train of thought more substance, Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist, states that: ”When we think about labor, we usually think about motivation and payment as the same thing, but the reality is that we should probably add all kinds of things to it: meaning, creation, challenges, ownership, identity, pride etc”. In 2008, he designed an experiment, in which he invited groups of students from Duke University and gave them a paid assignment –

to build Bionicles, which are action figure toys.

With the first group, after the toys were built, he put them one besides the other, so the students can compare their progress; when it came to the second group, he instantly dismantled the toys and gave the parts back to the students. The results? The second group started to build fewer Bionicles, due to a lack of motivation, knowing it will be quickly torn appart.

Adding to this, Pacific Standard Magazine interviewed a few journalists in this year’s July, asking what goes through their minds when they publish a new piece of writing.

Most of them said that they live for the ”high” of seeing their article become viral and that a whole array of emotions flow through them when looking at stats such as comments, likes, shares – general online traffic numbers.

So, as we can see, financial rewards are important, but more often than not, we tend to disconsider the motivational part of our work. Feeling that you are making a change for the better or adding something new and useful into this world can generally be just as important as getting paid at the end of the day for that particular workpiece.

> Business Development Manager reaches the top 3 best jobs in America, in 2015 Apparently, if you are employed as Business Development Manager, then you are lucky to have one of the best job titles in USA, in 2015.

Glassdoor, a worldwide platform for jobs and recruitment, ranked the best jobs to have in America right now.

With 11,616 job openings and an average salary that reaches $94,907, the Business Development Manager ranked as the third best job to have, alongside Physician Assistant and Software Engineer. However, Glassdoor did not limit to ranking jobs based

solely on average pay and the number of jobs available, at a certain time.

They have taken into account more complex needs that people have and expect from their professions, such as career opportunity or job review. As far as these go, being a Business Development Manager gives you a 3.5, out of a maximum of 5, career opportunity chances, and a job score of 4.6 out of 5.

Big companies such as General Electric, Facebook and Google, to name just a few, have sought to hire Business Development Managers in 2015.

NEWS

> Connecting the dots: lack of innovation leads to failure of new products Innovation is a concept that has been glued to the perception of progress. However, as easy as the theory may be, as difficult and complex it proves to be in practice. This is how companies such as Wazoku are born.

Wazoku is a software company which helps organisations of every type to achieve their desired goals and attain higher degrees of innovation. They recently released a survey that sought to measure the state of innovation within large scale organizations.

On one end, they found out that, regarding leadership, 72% of the surveyed employees had no idea what innovation means for their respective employer, with 32% stating that board-level members drive innovation for their company. Moreover, 80-90% of every 100 new products entering the market generally tend to fail to catch on.

On the other end, 53% of the managers who responded said that they are unaware of their organisations definition of innovation or how it fits into the greater picture of corporate goals; 38% of them did not see innovation as being their responsability, since it was not part of their job description.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that 79% of respondents argue that ideas are improved via collaboration and not by relying solely on lone thinkers or leaders. 76% of them also feel at home within an organisation if their ideas are

taken into consideration. The study comprises 1.000 UK board members and senior managers (4%), middle managers (22%), junior managers (24%), and rank-and-file workers (50%). As to the organizations themselves, 25% of them were public sector companies, with the remaining 75% being private.

The survey mainly assessed 5 specific areas, analyzing different variables for each of these, in order to see the impact on an enterprise’s ability to innovate: Culture Transparency, risk tolerance, collaboration, innovative DNA; Leadership Vision, capability, communication; Management Empowerment, enablement, champions; Strategy Corporate goals, innovation mix, language; Tools & Processest Technology, working practices.

All of these factors were measured at each individual level of innovative maturity: Novice Apprentice Professional EveryDay innovator

On one end, they found out that regarding leadership, 72% of the surveyed employees had no idea what innovation means for their respective employer, with 32% stating that board-level members drive innovation for their company. Moreover, 80-90% of every 100 new products entering the market generally tend to fail to catch on.

On the other end, 53% of the managers who responded said that they are unaware of their organisations definition of innovation or how it fits into the greater picture of corporate goals; 38% of them did not see innovation as being their responsability, since it was not part of their job description.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that 79% of respondents argue that ideas are improved via collaboration and not by relying solely on lone thinkers or leaders. 76% of them also feel at home within an organisation if their ideas are taken into consideration.

All in all, what does this show us? Well, we can see that managers at all levels are either unaware of their company’s vision, goals or objectives, not willing to get too involved, or simply prefer to grind out ideas on their own which, given the aforementioned numbers of product failure, do not seem like good tactics.

It might be high time to set out a round table with your peers and employees and find out what can propel your company further ahead of its competitors.

DECEMBER 2015

9

NEWS

> Managers engaging employees on social media increase change success rates Recent studies researching the link between social media and organizations concluded that an active behavior on social media platforms increases engagement, transparency, job satisfaction, while also facilitating sensitive operations such as change initiatives, layoffs and resignations, among others.

As such, 55% of employees wished that management would have engaged them more often on social media, during a time in which they underwent changes within their organization.

Another 42% said that they would have accepted the changes more easily if they would have been approached in a face-toface conversation.

Basically, the study conducted by the Weber Shandwick company shows that - as we already

spend an average of 3 hours per day on social media, managers and leaders might as well start engaging employees more often on these dedicated communication platforms. By doing so, employees can feel safer, cared for and their role within the company becomes more visible for themselves as well as others.

As for managers, having a more interactive behavior on social media can positively impact their role within the company, enhancing the transparency of their decision-making process, which in turn boosts employee confidence on matters related to job safety and security.

Harvard Business Review looked back on 3 examples when communication met the digital world and helped companies successfully conquer existing challenges.

The first the case was when Cisco’s CEO started two conversation threads, one to

announce his resignation and another to gather advice for the new CEO. Four days later, the threads collected over 1,000 comments and 20,000 views.

Pfizer asked 10 employees to record how organizational changes made them feel and how they were coping with them. These 10 drew internal popularity as everyone followed their journey and transmitted a sense of security and confidence in the changes experienced.

Symantec developed an app called Applause to align and correlate the management’s organizational objectives to the employees’ way of working. Before the year’s end, satisfaction levels had risen by 16%.

Overall, more communication means fewer problems, regardless of the mediums used, whether this means social media platforms, faceto-face meetings or mail sent via post `service.

> Study links professional success to high EQ An extensive study that surveyed more than 1 million people for EQ, concluded that high performers also registered high Emotional Intelligence levels.

Apparently, the more emotionally open you are, the more successful you are in your profession, whichever that is, and the more you earn at your job. Performed by TalentSmart, a USA-based EQ training organization, the study assessed the emotional intelligence of over 1 million people.

Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, is the ability of a person to understand, relate and empathize with other people. This enables someone to become a better communicator, negotiator and understand the social environment he or she activates in. In today’s global, multicultural context, such abilities are necessary to ensure one’s success at work and at home.

Results of the research developed by TalentSmart showed that EQ is responsible for successful experiences in all types of jobs. To be more accurate than that, people with high EQ levels earn bigger salaries than those with lower EQ. The difference in pay may vary with as much as $29,000 per year, for EQ. 10 DECEMBER 2015

However, there is a twist to this. Dr. Travis Bradberry, President of TalentSmart, mentions the one requirement for EQ to win you better career paths: it has to be genuine.

No faked emotions, and you have to prove to others that your EQ is real.

The same Bradberry then lists some features of what it means to genuinely have EQ and how it manifests in society: Having a genuine EQ basically means being who you are and not constantly trying to make yourself liked, being approachable and not passing on judgment so easily, relying on no one other than yourself to forge a path in life, being generous and treating others with respect. Moreover, material possessions are not the ones to motivate them, they are not insulted easily and they are not revengeful, they are committed to their activities and will not be caught peeking at their phone in mid-conversation, they don’t need the admiration of others and they know exactly how to value themselves and their qualities, without either bragging or being hypocrites.

What this profiles becomes, when all of these features are put together, is the portrait

of a leader, the kind of person that people generally look up to. Confident and firm, exigent but at the same time ethical and fair.

Naturally, hard work and ambition, combined with a dedicated set of personal qualities leads to being a better professional.

NEWS

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Explore the extensive Top KPIs series dedicated to analyzing the most popular KPIs by visiting: http://store.kpiinstitute.org/publications.html

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DECEMBER 2015

11

EVENTS COVER STORY

COVER STORY

THE STATE OF THE PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT AND KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS IN 2015 Operational level (at departmental and process level)

1

49%

39%

We don’t have a Performance Management System in place

12%

Strategic level (the performance of the entire organization)

2

39% Positive impact

3% Negative impact

Improvement - objectively evaluate the level of results achievement

18%

Focus - outline what requires attention

17%

Clarity - provide a detailed numerical view of the desired results

13%

Engagement - generate a sense of results ownership through nurturing responsibility and accountability

6%

Communication - convey key messages to internal and external stakeholders

3%

Learning - facilitate a better understanding of the business

32%

KPI selection

19%

KPI target setting

5%

KPI documentation

28%

KPI data gathering

14%

KPI analysis

2%

KPI data visualization

T Improvement

he study, entitled State of the Performance and Key Performance Indicators Practice Report offers insight from 4 key sections related to KPIs: KPI Lifecycle Analyzes different stages of the performance management cycle: KPI selection, documentation, target setting, data gathering, reporting and decision-making.

Performance Improvement System A key section which provides knowledgeable insights into how performance improvement systems are organized within various organizations.

Governance Assess communication and accountability levels met during performance management.

12 DECEMBER 2015

43%

15% I don’t know 14% No impact

4.1

3

Context Analyzes and evaluates the overall contexts in which KPIs and performance improvement initiatives are usually used and / or implemented.

In order to gather information on these topics, a survey consisting of 28 questions was disseminated throughout the world. The targeted audience was our online community which is made up of 73,000 members. Among them, 391 professionals have shared their tips and tricks in managing performance by answering our questionnaire. The findings are as follows: 1. Operational excellence with Performance Management Systems The latest trends in performance improvement indicate that Performance Management Systems are used by organizations worldwide mainly at an operational (49%) and strategic level (39%). The most common methodology used in structuring such a system is The Balanced Scorecard, present in 42% of our respondents’ replies.

2. KPIs drive value for businesses The study reveals a strong argument for supporting the implementation of KPIs, as 68% of professionals admitted having noticed a positive impact on business development following the KPI Framework implementation.

3. Improvement – the main reason to use KPIs The survey reveals that professionals use 3 main arguments to promote and justify the utilization of KPIs: improvement, focus and clarity. “Improvement” is by far the most commonly used argument for implementing KPIs among survey respondents. Moreover, 43% agreed that it is important to objectively evaluate the current level of results in order to ensure business development. Last but not least, “Focus” and “Clarity” are common reasons to promote the use of KPIs among 17% - 18 % of professionals.

COVER STORY

4.2

5

32% Building and operating

16% Performance data analysis

22%

6%

Performance reporting

18% Performance data analysis

6%

Learning from performance results

a performance culture

32% Organizational culture

6

10% Contribution of the entire executive team 10%

6%

16%

23%

56%

Partial Alignment

Total Misalignment

Complete Alignment

I don’t know

9% 9%

Structuring and formalizing the performance management system

8%

Support from the executive manager

7%

Data quality

4%

7

74%

Cloud based solution (internet login)

5. Organizational culture is seen as a key factor for developing a successful performance management system The survey findings (32%) highlight organizational culture as being the premier factor when it comes to facilitating the implementation of a successful performance management system. According to these results, the alignment of employees’ values to those of the company’s, coupled with an understanding of the company’s mission,

45%

Client-server solution I don’t know 7%

9%

11% Other obstacles or key drivers

4. KPI selection and building a performance culture are the most challenging aspects when it comes to performance management 32% of the respondents stated that the most challenging aspect in performance measurement has to do with identifying the right KPIs for their business. This challenge seems to be common among organizations regardless of their size or industry. In practice, what sets apart successful KPI selections from the rest is the organization’s ability to engage the right people in this process and to clarify its strategy. In terms of performance improvement, building a performanceoriented culture is the most difficult endeavor, based on the responses collected from 32% of professionals.

56%

8

10%

No

vision and core principles can either consolidate performance or constitute an obstacle in the implementation of a performance management system.

6. Partial alignment between employee performance plans and corporate strategy Complete alignment between organizational strategy and employee performance plans is common only among 23% of respondents, while partial alignment seems to be the most popular scenario, with 56%.

7. Microsoft Excel as the main data gathering and reporting tool 74% of professionals admitted using Microsoft Excel for data gathering and reporting. In terms of automated software, the most cited Business Intelligence tools were: Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft or QPR Software.

8. Predictive analytics: easier said than done!

Although predictive analytics and data modelling are popular topics nowadays, only 18 % of professionals claimed to use predictive analytics extensively. Capitalizing on data modelling allows us to use trend forecasting and pattern recognition on big data sets; having those tools readily available means that organizations can be one step ahead of their competitors, as well as their clients.

Yes

In practice however, the use of predictive analytics requires substantial investments in software tools and in finding or developing the necessary competencies which data-handling requires.

9. Data-based decision-making The study shows that 33% of professionals integrate KPI results into their decisionmaking process, while support for a standardized template in which to report the implementation of decisions and initiatives only appears in 32% of the cases.

10. A dedicated office to govern the Performance Management System More than 50% of the organizations analyzed have a dedicated office which handles all strategic and performance related aspects. A dedicated team for implementing and governing the performance management system ensures a consistent, structured and logical approach to improve strategy alignment and coherent decision-making.

The Performance Management Office should provide support in reporting performance-related information to all stakeholders and build a performance culture in the organization.

DECEMBER 2015 13

EVENTS INTERVIEWS

Ahmed Ragab Kuwait

Performance Management is the upcoming Organization Orchestrator!

Bert de Winter Belgium

We are developing and bringing the skill sets of our teams up to the level to actually help us transform the data into business information.

LuĂ­s Gargalo Portugal

[...] the Performance Management system will show where the organization is going, how fast it is moving and how it compares to the competition.

Michael J. Sutton USA

Performance Management is the mobilization trigger for continuous improvement in any enterprise [...]

Mohamad Yassine Kuwait

Performance management is part of the daily work, and daily work is managing performance.

Musa Bulus Nigeria

Performance Management is the art of reviewing how well an organization has performed.

INTERVIEWS

The more this departmental goal can be linked to the individuals’ tasks/roles, the more traceable and achievable that goal is.

Ahmed Ragab Principal Partner, Resilience&, Kuwait As Performance Management is continuously growing in popularity and maturity, any advancements in the field cannot be achieved without the collective support and insights of academics, practitioners and consultants.

In 2015, Ahmed Ragab was one of the experts who offered Performance Magazine, and its readership, insights on the state of the discipline. Ahmed Ragab is the Principal Partner of Resilience& Middle East operation.

His areas of expertise cover the following fields: Information Security Management System and Data Classification, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, Quality Systems, Balanced Scorecard, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Dashboards, among others.

1. What does the term Performance Management mean to you?

Optimization! Many companies are wasting hundreds of thousands of USD annually in order to satisfy their clients or to achieve their targeted annual goals, however some performance management frameworks could help in optimizing the costs vs. returns.

Performance Management, to me, means the Organization Orchestrator.

2. What drives interest in Performance Management?

Cost saving, people engagement, stakeholder’s evaluation and organizational governance!

3. What are your thoughts on the relationship between Performance Management at

organizational, departmental and individual level?

Any organizational strategic dimension shall be cascaded down to departmental goals/ targets. The more this departmental goal can be linked to the individuals’ tasks/roles, the more traceable and achievable that goal is.

Accordingly, the simple insight about this relationship is a top-down strategy for setting individual performance indicators. And a Bottom-up approach in evaluating these indicators and getting the organizational cumulative ones!

4. What are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management from your point of view?

In order to position the “Organizational Orchestrator”, I see the following trend could change the equation in terms of the products’ design, consulting approaches as well as implementation methodologies: how to softly automate the entire organizational performance management typology covering the following contexts: people performance, technology applications, support operations, regulatory compliance, customer engagement management, investors’ relationships and suppliers’ engagement. We can say the entire value chain of the organization shall be reflected in one balanced scorecard, but this time it shall be with clear demarcation of the automated results of the mentioned contexts.

5. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research?

Supplier performance management, Regulatory Compliance Operations’ Performance Management and Processes Benchmarking.

6. Which companies would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to Performance Management and subsequent results?

As per my coverage of the Middle East, especially the Gulf region, I’d highly recommend following the performance management practice of Retail Industries, as this sector has the majority of diversified operations that could be under one retail umbrella, and some of the market leaders started to seek operational excellence awards.

And this, by itself, will bring more insights bout new approaches to the performance management culture in Middle East.

7. Which are the main challenges in today’s Performance Management practice?

Lack of awareness about the value of such practices for business owners, as well as the lack of certified professionals in this domain who could advise different industries.

8. What do you think should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes?

Any attempt to have different languages’ tools/ applications interfaces would greatly impact idea spreading in the Middle East. Also the ease of using and filling the dashboard details, so people can be encouraged to participate in such tools/processes-automation.

9. What would you consider best practices in Performance Management?

PDCA, Six-Sigma (for processes improvement), as well as benchmarking as per industry relevance.

10. Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs?

Different types of KPIs design and understanding the nature of organizational business processes as there are dramatic differences between private sectors and the governmental ones.

DECEMBER 2015 15

INTERVIEWS

We have actually put in place a Supply Chain Academy, where once a year we give the core of our talent those 5-6 challenges, to work on them for 5-6 months and then they come back with recommendations.

11. Which are the limits in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management among practitioners? (a) Awareness and Advanced Programs’ availability (lack of outreach), (b) Clear learning and accreditation paths, (c) Backto-community contributions from the practitioners, and (d) Lack of published articles with tangible frameworks, tools and case studies.

12. If you are to name, in a few words, the main aspects governing Performance Management today, what would they be?

Balanced Scorecard, KPIs, Process Analysis/ Mapping, Processes Automation and Improvement.

13. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours?

I can agree, only if the way of doing this is interesting (I mean using interactive technology, programs/interfaces) and the results are directly mapped to the employee’s work improvement in a SINCERE manner.

14. Are you using any kind of personal performance measurement tools? If yes, please describe how this has influenced your life.

Yes, I do, but with limited functionalities, as it requires some unnecessary details that do not impact the purposed dashboard structure. It helps on an abstract level, but when I want to get into details, it’ll require some customization.

15. Do you have any tips for successfully managing one’s work-life balance? What are your thoughts?

I’d recommend reading my published article with University of Liverpool, titled “Personal KPIs.” 16 DECEMBER 2015

16. As a consultant, what are the most common issues that your customers have signaled, related to Performance Management?

Lack of clear goals, identification (to be more aligned with corporate strategic dimensions) and weighting the objectives in a relatively reasonable manner.

Bert de Winter Director of Logistics Operations for Printing & Personal Systems Hardware & Supplies EMEA, Hewlett-Packard, Belgium The Performance Management team was present during 3 – 5 June, 2015, at the Supply Chain Analytics conference from Amsterdam.

Consequently, the insights gathered from experts present at the event had been gathered and exposed in a series of interviews and articles.

Bert de Winter, Logistics Director at HewlettPackard EMEA, was among the experts interviewed by our team on the scene.

1. . What is your opinion on the importance of improving the supply chain performance?

I think it’s something that we need to do on a continuous basis, because we have a lot competitive pressure and we just need to make sure we can either improve several levels to satisfy our customers, or find ways to improve our cache as well as bring down our costs.

2. What are your thoughts on the usage of performance management for supply chains?

I think it’s a key thing to understand how your supply chain is operating, to make sure that you monitor the performance levels so you can find opportunities for further innovation

solutions and also find opportunities for further improvement, so we can continue to delight our customers, to bring the produce to the market in a quicker way, or maybe at a better quality level, or at a lower cost level.

3. In your experience, what are some good practices in the supply chain analytics?

We have also invested quite a lot in training our people to deal with Lean, or Six Sigma approaches, for instance, in order to drive continuous improvement.

We have also invested in giving some of our top talented people some Big Business challenges to figure out; we have actually put in place a Supply Chain Academy, where once a year we give the core of our talent those 5-6 challenges, to work on them for 5-6 months and then they come back with recommendations.

4. What are some key trends in 2015, in supply chain analytics, in your opinion?

One of the things that I see is the pressure for getting more real-time visibility, but also to get more easy-to-connect connectivity for onboard partners, providers, as well as ship sites and logistics carriers in a quicker way.

Also getting social collaboration from end to end, is one other trend. So, all the way from supply to manufacturers to logistics providers and to customers, I think that endto-end collaboration is one of the key trends that I see emerging. Additionally, we need to be able to be ready to offer support and get ahead of the game.

5. What are the main difficulties in supply chain analytics?

One of the key things is actually that we need to have data accuracy and also an all-time

INTERVIEWS

To me, the best practice is to make sure that the organizational strategy is truly connected to people. Communication is the key.

For this, we are developing and bringing the skill sets of our teams up to the level to actually help us transform data into business information, so that we can drive better business decisions.

That is one of our key challenges, but also where we’re also focusing on investing in.

6. What companies would you recommend to be looked at, due to their approach to supply chain analytics and their subsequent results?

I can’t really name any companies, but it would be good to keep an eye out for what’s happening, especially in the whole Internet industry.

There we see Google, for instance, sitting on a lot of information and actually using that to their advantage, but also providing a lot of data for building Business Intelligence and I think that is one of the companies to look at.

It may not be directly related to supply chain, but I think the way they are managing data, especially Big Data, is a good example.

That is also where HP is developing their own core set of business propositions, as well.

On the one side, we are trying to have these kind of capabilities to manage our supply chain; on the other hand, we are also helping customers to build these kind of capabilities by offering Big Data, analytical skills and tools ourselves.

Luís Gargalo Management Control Systems Department Coordinator, Wayfield, Trading Internacional, SA - Grupo Refriango, Portugal The KPI Institute’s Performance Management in 2014 report is built on the belief that a balanced approach in such research endeavours can only be achieved by triangulating the opinions of practitioners, academics and consultants alike.

In 2014, Luís Gargalo, Management Control Systems Department Coordinator for Wayfield, Trading Internacional, SA – Grupo Refriango, Portugal, was one of the practitioners who offered us rich insights into performance related research and trends.

1. What does the term Performance Management mean to you?

Performance Management is business improvement, Balanced Scorecards, planning and budgeting, forecasting, the ABC and also strategy, but to me, it is much more than that - it is the way you connect people to strategy. If well designed, the Performance Management system will show where the organization is going, how fast it is moving and how it compares to the competition.

Performance Management, to me, means the Organization Orchestrator.

2. What drives interest in Performance Management?

In Africa, we can currently witness a strong interest in Performance Management systems. The goal is to make operations and activities more effective and efficient.

Sometimes, there is more interest in specific

tools, like the Balanced Scorecard or a simple KPI system but this is just the romantic way that some people choose to view it as.

3. What are your thoughts on the relationship between Performance Management at organizational, departmental and individual level?

I believe in people as a company’s most valuable asset and I see, at a corporate level, performance management as the result of the work, passion and determination of people. Performance Management at the organizational level must be intimately linked to Performance Management at the individual level.

4. What are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management from your point of view?

It depends on the development stage of the organization as also the market and the country. For example in Africa nowadays, the focus goes to operations and activities, but in Portugal or in Europe we find focus on strategy and communication.

“

“

availability of the data as well, to give us the insight of how to actually manage and further improve performance. So that’s one of our key challenges, basically. And also, one other thing is that we are having a lot of data, at the moment, and transforming that data into business information is one of our other key challenges.

I believe in people as a company’s most valuable asset.

5. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research?

We should be able to measure the immeasurable and evaluate the consequences of uncertainty in a much better way. I must say that I am not satisfied with the instruments that are currently used for dealing with uncertainty and I think we should all invest more time and money in order to get better instruments to evaluate the uncertainty and measure of what we deem immeasurable.

DECEMBER 2015

17

INTERVIEWS

Performance Management at the organizational level must be intimately linked to Performance Management at the individual level.

7. Which are the main challenges in today’s Performance Management practice?

I would say that the challenges are more or less the same as before, maybe now we need to cope with globalization and be flexible enough to understand that different cultures and different economies require different approaches to Performance Management, but I think that the main challenge will be the same for a long time: dealing with the risk of uncertainty and finding how to measure the immeasurable.

8. What do you think should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes?

We could use the network effect in order to improve the way we use Performance Management within organizations. I am not saying that we are not making use of the network at all, but I think we should work it better and deeper. Imagine that you could share what you are doing today with other guys from different organizations and vice versa, imagine that we could all use the same platform to share performance metrics and compare results. That would be a huge improvement.

9. What would you consider best practices in Performance Management?

To me, the best practice is to make sure that the organizational strategy is truly connected to people. Communication is key.

18 DECEMBER 2015

10. Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs?

First of all, students should be taught to develop their critical thinking ability and then, they will learn that each organization is different from another and the same organization is different when working in different countries.

Students will realize that the best Performance Management system for one organization is not necessarily the best for another.

11. Which are the limits in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management among practitioners?

I don’t see any limits; some do it with passion and achieve great results, others have passion for other fields of knowledge and they won’t be the best in Performance Management.

Passion and determination are the keys to achieving the best results, whatever you choose to follow.

“

Performance management is the way you connect people to strategy.

“

6. Which companies would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to Performance Management and subsequent results?

There are plenty of examples. In Angola I would say Refriango. It is an incredible example of the relationship between individual Performance Management and the organizational level of performance.

12. If you are to name, in a few words, the main aspects governing Performance Management today, what would they be?

Leadership is one of the main aspects that drive Performance Management to the next level; if the leadership is not fully committed with Performance Management, it will not get the most out of it.

13. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours?

To be honest, I must say that I leave Performance Management inside working hours. I admit that it is appealing to bring it to your personal life and I believe we do it already unconsciously but I prefer to at least try to keep it inside working hours.

14. Are you using any kind of personal performance measurement tools? If yes, please describe how this has influenced your life.

No, definitely not. Some friends and I frequently join for jogging and some of them use mobile apps that measure their performance, race after race, pace after pace, but I keep saying to them: “that is not healthy guys, seize the running, without always looking to the cell phone”.

15. Do you have any tips for successfully managing one’s work-life balance? What are your thoughts?

Leave your work in the office, do your best every day, live your work with passion. Love your family, your friends and your dog as if today is the last day of your life. Don’t mix it together. Leave the work in the office.

16. Which are the recent achievements in generating value as result of Performance Management put in practice in your organization?

I have been implementing a Performance Management system in Angola since 2010 and today we know that more than 6.000 employees in the organization are aware of what they are doing, how their input generates value to the organization, they know where we were yesterday, where we are today and where we expect to be tomorrow. We all know how we compare to the competition and what we should do next.

INTERVIEWS

We face a mosaic of global educational systems for employees, management, and executives that over-emphasizes competition and hinders to reward collaboration and cooperation through smartnerships (smart partnerships).

Michael J. Sutton Associate Professor of Management Gamification, Serious Games, and Simulations, Westminster College, USA Michael J. Sutton, Associate Professor of Management Gamification, Serious Games, and Simulations at Westminster College, USA, is one of the academics who, in 2015, offered valuable insights for Performance Magazine.

His vast experience in the Performance Management field, correlated with the increasingly more interesting component of Gamification, resulted in a very intriguing interview which you can read below.

Trends 1. Which are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management, from your point of view?

My work is that of a boundary spanner associated with Knowledge Management, Business and Competitive Intelligences, Organizational Transformation, Entrepreneurship, and Organizational Analysis and Design. Over the last 5 years, I have watched the emergence of a cross-disciplinary field that encompasses all of my areas of interest, and is building visibility and profile that many would have never expected. That cross-disciplinary field has been ascribed the label Gamification, Serious Games, Augmented/Virtual Reality, and Simulations (GSA/VRS).

2. What are your thoughts on the integration of Performance Management at organizational, departmental and employee level?

Performance Management (PM) is the mobilization trigger for continuous improvement in any enterprise that wishes to be recognized and respected as a Learning Organization. The goal of Performance

Management is to increase the clarity of strategic, tactical, and operational thinking, employee job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Culture will either enable or constrain the application of single and double loop learning, coaching, mentoring, and feedback to continuous improvement.

My anecdotal, but extensive experience over the last 45 years in private sector, public sector, military sector, and the educational sector would suggest that PM is an ethereal concept that seldom is anchored to the foundational principles and values of our global, national, and local businesses and institutions. Others may have experienced a more positive engagement by enterprises within each sector, but I have seldom seen any significant relationship and commitment devised to connect these three levels.

Often I have observed top-down, bottomup and middle-out attempts at constructing a PM framework. However, each business transformation required to accommodate PM Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) more often than not remains incomplete. Many of the barriers are cultural, and this organizational trait in terms of poorly defined accountability, lack of responsibility, and implied authority will impede any transformation. Nevertheless, to me a significant barrier is behavioural. We face a mosaic of global educational systems for employees, management, and executives that over-emphasizes competition and hinders to reward of collaboration and cooperation through smartnerships (“smart partnerships�).

3. Which will be the major changes in managing performance, in the future?

Smartnerships are an emerging mobilization trigger for individuals, departments, and organizations. Enterprises, such as Gore

& Associates, Zappos, Valve Software, and Morning Star, have demonstrated the success of holacracy (flat management). This emerging trend in management structures has the power to construct smartnerships that can benefit both individual employees, as well as the teams and the organizational entity itself. Nonetheless, such an approach to organizational structure is more easily deployed within an entrepreneurial firm or small to medium-sized enterprise. Large, bureaucratic organizations lack the agility and capacity to handle significant change and pivoting without critical organizational implosions, since the cultural imperative does not exist.

Research 4. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research?

That cross-disciplinary field I have previously identified, Gamification, Serious Games, Augmented/Virtual Reality, and Simulations (GSA/VRS), needs to be explored through more research for a number of performance management reasons. Although many enterprises are implementing these techniques, tools, learning strategies, and applications quickly within their Training and Development business units, (Gartner indicates that 50% of all enterprises have implemented these approaches to training as of 2015), metrics are still sketchy that could point to success. Most current evaluations of these tools are anecdotal at best and qualitative at worst.

Much of the imperative for implementing these tools and techniques has been increasing the engagement of staff, managers, and executives in their work and learning activities. This outcome, coupled with increasing retention of employees by increasing job satisfaction DECEMBER 2015 19

INTERVIEWS

Performance Management (PM) is the mobilization trigger for continuous improvement in any enterprise that wishes to be recognized and respected as a Learning Organization.

through extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, suggest an immediate requirement for increasing the validity of KPIs for both the learning organization, as well as qualitative measures on the sustainable impact within the workplace.

For example, an emerging learning organization will construct learning communities and Communities-of-Practice (COPs) to exchange existing knowledge nuggets within the minds of the knowledge workers and to cultivate new knowledge as a means to trigger innovation throughout the firm. Such communities provide the basis for building new competitive advantages for the enterprise.

The same holds true for higher educational institutions, who are experiencing decreased enrollments in North America, and here the price and ROI for degrees has come under increased scrutiny. Many faculty members have been experimenting over the last 5+ years with gamification in classroom-based courses, hybrid courses, and online in courses. An increasing number of bachelor, masters, and doctoral programs are strictly online, and more effective than on campus courses because of the flexibility and cost of the programs. Thus, assessing and evaluating the educational impact for gamification, serious games, augmented/virtual reality, and simulations (GSA/VRS) to address learning outcomes effectively is paramount for increasing engagement and retention in universities and colleges.

5. Which organizations would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to managing performance, and their subsequent results?

In terms of gamification in corporate and business environments, no clear leaders are yet 20 DECEMBER 2015

identifiable, because of the flux in different platforms and delivery models demonstrating the business value proposition for GSA/VRS. However, prominent players can be identified: Muzzy Lane Software, Microsoft HoloLens, IBM SmartPlay, BreakAway Games, Caspian Learning, Innovation Games, GamEffective, PlayGen, Virtual Heroes, Morf Media, Badgeville, ExperiencePoint, Artemat, Designing Digitally, Growth Engineering, and PlanetJockey.

Additionally, many higher education institutions are building professional certification, bachelors, masters, and doctoral gamification degree programs.

The innovative leaders appear to be: Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin, Savannah College of Art and Design, Bloomsburg University, Columbia University, Excelsior College, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Malta, Aalborg University (Denmark), University of Utrecht (Netherlands), HKU University of the Arts (Netherlands), Turku University of Applied Sciences (Finland), University of Tampere (Finland), Institute of Technology, Carlow (Ireland), Mahidol University (Thailand), U-tad - Centro Universitario de Tecnología y Arte Digital (Spain).

6. What Performance Management question would you like to ask researchers?

I think three significant questions related to assessing the value of xx to Performance Management might be useful in launching useful research in this emerging GSA/VRS area: 1. What are the KPIs that are useful for measuring the impact of GSA/VRS on individual employee engagement, retention, efficiency, and effectiveness?

2. What KPIs could be useful to demonstrate

team-based and business unit performance increases when GSA/VRS, as applied to Training and Development in an enterprise?

3. Which KPIs can be identified or developed for assessing and evaluating the educational impact of GSA/VRS on learning outcomes, student engagement, student retention, and post-graduation success in the workplace within institutions of higher education?

Practice 7. Which are main challenges of Performance Management in practice, today?

The critical challenges of practice-based Performance Management are surfacing quickly to include: • Teaching managers to be effective development coaches for improving performance of their staff.

• Seriously engaging executives in performance management beyond dashboards and scorecards.

• Creating and enforcing accountability in our business and educational leaders for developing further the strengths of employees and educators.

• Increasing alignment of performance goals with strategic and tactical business goals.

• Improving the ability of a manager to furnish real-time feedback.

8. What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes?

Performance Management tools and processes need to be improved to: 1. Clearly communicate performance goals and expectations to all employees (in the cases of business environments) and faculty (in the cases of educational environments) on a timely, periodic basis.

INTERVIEWS

Encourage innovation through employee and management engagement in enterprises or in the case of educational institutions.

9. What would you consider as a best practice in Performance Management?

The following, to me, are some of the best practices in Performance Management: 1. Integrate GSA/VRS KPIs into critical business and educational processes to demonstrate the validity of gamification within the firm and university.

2. Construct and deploy coaching and mentoring development programs to managers, employees, and higher education faculty, thus building sustainable internal expertise, while increasing engagement and retention.

3. Identify, recognize, foster, and incentivize the innovative leaders in the enterprise or university, whether the individuals are experienced or junior executives, managers, employees, staff, faculty, or students.

Education 10. Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs?

I am totally biased in my response to this

question. In my professional opinion, the cross-disciplinary emergent field—labeled Gamification, Serious Games, Augmented/ Virtual Reality, and Simulations—will have the greatest impact globally on the performance and success of global economic outcomes in terms of our workplaces and educational institutions.

11. What are the limits that prevent practitioners from achieving higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management?

To me, the most critical constraints our enterprises and educational institutions face are managing underperformance and mediocrity, along with the blatant lack of innovative and agile organizational cultures.

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The most critical constraints our enterprises and educational institutions face are managing underperformance.

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2. Identify and increase methods for improving the return on Human Capital, (such as performance coaching, mentoring, and timely feedback).

3. Apply KPIs to identify performance gaps internally (employee satisfaction) and externally (stakeholder, regulator, customer, and supplier satisfaction), and resolve the emergent issues and concerns within a finite timeframe.

4. Encourage innovation though employee and management engagement in enterprises; or in the case of educational institutions, through student participation in the development of educational gaming environments.

5. Transparently post results and outcomes and celebrate the achievements taking place

Personal Performance 12. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours?

Many of the Gen X, Y, Z and Millennials are embracing new forms of performance monitoring of their lives outside of the workplace, e.g., FitBit, Nike+, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Starbucks Rewards. Most of these generations are comfortable with this personal information not being private. The GI and Baby Boomer generations are much less trusting of seeing personal performance

indicators available to the public, or hackable to prying eyes.

13. What personal performance measurement tools do you use?

Very early in my career I adopted Lateral Thinking, as taught by Edward De Bono, as a means of increasing my creativity quotient to perform better in my coursework. Later, an author, who eventually became a colleague (Bill Jensen), introduced me to the pragmatic implementation of a concept for streamlining my work activities—Simplicity. As my professional life became much more hectic, I adopted the GTD (Getting Things Done) Method by David Allen to increase my workplace performance.

Most recently, I adapted an approach created

by Ronen Gafni and Simcha Gluck: The New Entrepreneurz—Changing the Way You Play Life, resulting in a personal, revolutionary performance increase that will drive my next decade of life-long education, mentoring, coaching, and consulting.

Specific Question 14. For Consultants: What are the processes and tools you look at, in order to differentiate a successful performance management system, from a superficial one?

Being that my career has encompassed the academy, the practitioner environment, and the consulting world, I was challenged by this question. Without a touch of reservation, I propose that for any performance management system to be successful, it must incorporate a framework and paradigm based upon Gamification, Serious Games, Augmented/ Virtual Reality, and Simulations (GSA/VRS).

These techniques will increase motivation, bolster the capability to incorporate doubleloop learning, build micro learning feedback, and permit graceful failure within a learning and operational environment.

DECEMBER 2015 21

INTERVIEWS

The main challenges are always related to humans, aren’t they?

And that’s basically something that we face every day: the resistance to change, to accountable teams and trasnparency, the resistance to learning.

Mohamad Yassine Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Adjunct Professor, Gulf University for Science & Technology, Kuwait The KPI Institute’s Performance Management in 2014: GCC Special Edition report is built on the belief that a balanced approach in such research endeavours can only be achieved by triangulating the opinions of practitioners, academics and consultants alike.

In 2014, Mohamad Yassine, Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Adjunct Professor at Gulf University for Science & Technology in Kuwait, was one of the academics who offered us rich insights into performance related research and trends.

1. What does the term Performance Management mean to you?

Performance management, to me, is basically an integrated function that seeks to successfully capture the business value proposition of the company, the elements in the organizational business strategy. And this happens through thorough execution and alignment of the business objectives and incentives, of the stakeholders throughout the organization, all the way down to employees and linking that to the daily activities.

Performance management includes building and maintaining the organizational infrastructure. It also includes training and coaching employees and keeping the right information, which is very important to the right stakeholders, at the right time.

Performance Management, to me, means the Organization Orchestrator.

22 DECEMBER 2015

2. What drives interest in Performance Management?

Well, not only nowadays but always and it will forever be this way: what will drive interest in performance management is basically competition, harsh competition and profitability, because at the end of the day, no matter what type of approach or balanced scorecard you look at, the business is always generating money and the due amount will basically be the final decider. Also, another renewed interest in performance management is the need for more transparency and accountability alongside compliance with regulations, more recently. It’s also another reason, or another driver, for performance management.

important nowadays, as most businesses and most tools are mobile. Also, a lot of data is being generated nowadays and it makes sense that through business intelligence, it is being used for performance management. So, that’s the main new trend.

3. What are your thoughts on the relationship between Performance Management at organizational, departmental and individual level?

Organizations are operated by employees, which are usually organized in departments or units. So ideally, each employee contributes to the performance of his/her unit which in turn, contributes to the performance of the organization. That’s the simple physics of the problem. So, a successful performance management system should capture explicitly this relationship and it should catalyze and improve its performance, by showing each individual and each department what role they play in the big picture.

5. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research?

I think that some of the most important aspects that should be investigated more is how strategies between performance management and other emerging business practices, such as HR talent management, for example, can be captured. That is the synergy between talent management and performance management. How employee incentives can be successfully aligned with performance and organizational incentives, without negatively affecting performance itself or without triggering unfavorable behaviors of employees, such as gaming. Also, some of the important aspects that need to be investigated are how the investment costs of setting a performance management can be further minimized or even at least optimized.

How performance management can achieve a state-of-the-art learning environment and adapt to organizations which basically utilize and disseminate knowledge effectively. These are my current thoughts about the present, most demanding aspects that need to be investigated through research.

4. What are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management from your point of view?

In 2014, the main trends were a continuation of the previous trends, which are mainly new developments in the IT sector or are affected by the new developments in the IT sector. Specifically speaking, the new trends in business intelligence, big data analytics, also business mobility, for example, are very

6. Which companies would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to Performance Management and subsequent results?

There are plenty of examples, of course, but this is something that I had recently looked at. I would suggest to look at what the higher education sector is doing with performance management because with the shrinkage of

INTERVIEWS

When performance management is introduced to the user, a coherent framework of the way of doing work should also be introduced to that user so that he does not have to do performance management beyond and above the daily work.

funding, higher education institutions really came under huge pressure to optimize their resources and to know where to allocate resources; this in turn triggers huge performance management initiatives. As we all know, higher education institutions are big organizations and they tend to be very complex and very rigid in terms of structure. Also, another industry I would suggest to look at is the healthcare industry.

What these people are doing in performance management and the reason why they are doing a good job is because it’s a big industry and they want to minimize risk. They always seek to minimize risk, as it is related to human health, and they are really doing some good work in terms of performance and enterprise risk management. One company I suggest to look at is Comic Relief, which was founded in the ‘80s. Comic Relief is a non-profit charity organization that managed to really stick to the state-of-theart strategy and performance management systems. It became one of the leading and most innovative charitable organizations in the United Kingdom. Of course, there are many other examples, but that’s pretty much what comes to my mind.

7. Which are the main challenges in today’s Performance Management practice?

The main challenges are always related to humans, aren’t they? And that’s basically something that we face every day: the resistance to change, to accountable teams and transparency, the resistance to learning, because with performance management and the new tools of performance management, people are required to learn more. And usually, people are not happy about learning more. People like to remain in the comfort zone. So these are the main challenges I see.

Of course, there are some hot challenges in

terms of competition and budget which, again, are physical challenges. Major challenges that I see have to do with resistance and organizational culture.

8. What do you think should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes?

I think the user interface, the user friendliness of the concepts of performance management definitely need to be improved.

Performance management is being seen as a very hard thing to do and something that we should do on top of our daily work. When performance management is introduced to the user, a coherent framework of the way of doing work should also be introduced to that user so that he does not have to do performance management beyond and above the daily work. Performance management is part of the daily work and daily work is managing performance; that is one aspect that I can see being improved in performance management. Another thing is, and I know this might be hard, the standardization of performance management, maybe not as status scope standard system, but maybe as a multiple system of performance management, which really looks for the needs, demands and requirements of every institution or organization. In terms of tools, I think we are doing well. In terms of technology, as far as performance management is concerned, it is in fact even ahead of us. Whatever technology you want, whatever data acquisition system you want, you just name it at whatever provider you want. You can have it. It is not about technology anymore. The bottom line, now, is the user and the operator.

9. What would you consider best practices in Performance Management?

The practice of performance management

is very context-dependent. But I would say the best methodology of performance management or best approach is that which really simplifies the problem, simply eases performance management in the eyes of the user. It delivers consistent results and it connects daily operations with long term strategy. Those are, I think, the main criteria of what a good performance management mechanism should achieve. You can have the most sophisticated performance management system and, in terms of design, it’s really doing a marvelous job. But once implemented, it could fail. I would give the example of GE. The company GE is one of the leading technology companies in the world. They have a very simple performance management and goal setting system that was developed by Jack Welch himself. He basically demanded that the strategy or the objectives of the unit should not exceed one page. And measures and achievements should be another one page. And the reason for this is that he wanted to emphasize that the performance management system is not another documentation requirement, but it is a tool that needs to really makes you think about tomorrow, about how I am going to get there and how I know what I have there.

10. Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs?

I do not think that an undergraduate level education in performance management is sufficient. Maybe, a Masters’ level of business administration or project management. This is what I think of in terms of graduate education.

But, in terms of bodies of knowledge, I can rephrase this question: what bodies of knowledge I think should be included into the performance management body of knowledge? I would look at, for example, DECEMBER 2015 23

INTERVIEWS

Ideally, each employee contributes to the performance of his/her unit which, in turn, contributes to the performance of the organization. That’s the simple physics of the problem.

Quality Management. That is one important field, in terms of managing performance. Another is Information Management Systems: looking at how information can be managed, accessed, retrieved and communicated. That’s another important thing. Of course, strategy, operational research and management, data analysis, software design, all of these are really important aspects that should be part of the education, in terms of performance management. And, again, we should focus on who is the audience. Are we talking about the user or the practitioners? We are talking about practitioners.

To summarize, strategic and operational management, performance research or operational research, quality management, data analysis, information management, innovation, a structured enterprise should all be considered in the educational programs of performance management.

11. Which are the limits in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management among practitioners?

How are you measuring proficiency? If we are measuring proficiency in terms of exam grades, I think they’re limitless, because it depends on the exam, doesn’t it? The limit, in that case, is the exam certification and the skills of the practitioner. But, if we are talking about limits in terms of actual results, there would be - theoretically speaking, two poles to the limits. There are hard and soft limits.

I would group technologies, systems and processes in the hard limits category. And I don’t see limits in here. I see no limits in the current and future trends in technology, as far as performance management is concerned.

In the soft factors or aspects category I would group competencies, people and managing change, managing the market, surviving the competition. Competition nowadays is very harsh. And employees, talent migration or 24 DECEMBER 2015

talent retention is a major issue. A company can develop a system that is championed by one of their key thought leaders or thought leaders, as we call them. However, tomorrow, this employee might leave somewhere else.

And these are the real challenges to a team: the ability to gather up change agents, system architects and competencies.

12. If you are to name, in a few words, the main aspects governing Performance Management today, what would they be?

I wouldn’t say that technology is a main aspect anymore because, you see, technology is in excess. I think the main aspects nowadays are talent, competency and basically, surviving the competition or being competitive. Let’s frame it as competitiveness, effectiveness, talent and sustainability.

13. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours?

I think it’s a great idea. But, of course, it does not come without a risk free tag, doesn’t it? It’s really interesting. Actually, I’ve just ordered my Fitbit Tracker yesterday. And it’s a great idea to have these things. But, again, we are generating tons of information about ourselves. And the way this information is being used, regarding identity and personal security, isn’t truly clear. However, I think that the issue of security, personal identity and all this type of information classification will become irrelevant because of the internet. All things and all the developed interconnections, our online identity, is revealed more with every hour and whatever information you need to find about somebody you’ve seen, you can just Google that person’s name and find it. So, I think we should worry less about information security nowadays and focus more on how to utilize this. And I’m totally for this

type of personal performance management, as long as it’s really tied with true science, not just another scam or a hoax.

14. Are you using any kind of personal performance measurement tools? If yes, please describe how this has influenced your life.

Well, I keep talking on my cell phone nowadays, don’t I? How many steps have I been going back and forth? There are a lot of trackers embedded in cell phones nowadays and, without mentioning a brand, most of the trackers are really not very effective, unfortunately. However, tracking your sleep is a good idea because I’m sure that if you live on Earth, you like sleep, don’t you?

Our sleep might be and is, a KPI of performance - personal performance. There are truly plenty of things that, in terms of personal devices and personal trackers, will really change the shape of human interactions and of humanity. I would just give it another couple of years, 2 to 3 years, and this is really in terms of personal devices, personal trackers, connections for whatever census, wherever you want. Specifically, because I’m tightly informed about science, I tend to side with the development of Nano-technology.

Nano-technology offers great and efficient technology in terms of data acquisition and basically all these type of things. I would use whatever tools that are available, in order to measure performance or at least try it and see if I like them because my personal goal is to be the best I can. And I need to manage this.

15. Do you have any tips for successfully managing one’s work-life balance? What are your thoughts?

There is one piece of advice I always give to my employees. And this is what I tell them: The day I’m going to die, if I don’t die, I will

INTERVIEWS

In most organizations, performance is only considered from the financial perspective and the other aspects that lead to sustainable performance are not taken into consideration.

be working. So, work is never finished. We package work into projects, into activities, but work is always there and it will always be there. And one day, if you don’t die, you’ll most likely be sitting at your desk working.

Therefore, in order to manage and succeed at work and in your personal life, do not focus on work - focus on your personal life. In order to get better performance at work, give your employees training outside work. Let them learn music, focus on something that they love so that they excel on other parts because you are the same person outside and inside the working environment, and whatever you do outside, will affect your work. And whatever you do at work, will affect your life. So, my piece of advice is to focus less on work and focus more on life, so that you succeed more in work and in your life.

16. We are developing a database of Performance Management subjects and degrees. Which are the subjects/degrees you have come across and at which university? (i.e. subjects or degrees such as the Masters in Managing Organizational Performance) Good degrees to look at are those in high educational leadership and in workforce development. These are really good places to look at. I would add to this, of course, all those that have a Master’s at the postgraduate level. I would add to these degrees or programs those that have to do with business sustainability.

It’s a very new, emerging concept in terms of sustainability, morals, environmental aspects, environmental sustainability, and try to embed these in terms of business sustainability is fascinating. I would add also to this a degree in industrial engineering that focuses on lean management, lean production systems and lean transformation. All these fields are very important. They have, in fact, contributed to my skills development.

Musa Bulus Senior Strategy Analyst, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria The KPI Institute’s Performance Management in 2014 report is built on the belief that a balanced approach in such research endeavors can only be achieved by triangulating the opinions of practitioners, academics and consultants alike. In 2014, Musa Bulus, Senior Strategy Analyst at the Central Bank of Nigeria, was one of the practitioners who offered us rich insights into performance related research and trends.

1. What does the term Performance Management mean to you?

Performance Management is the art of reviewing how well an organization has performed. It is a field of management that considers the performance of an organization, as well as that of the individuals, given an agreed target. To the public sector it considers the performance in the following areas: • Political performance (how well a political party does); • Organizational/Municipal Performance; • Managerial performance; • Unit/department/group performance; • Programs, policies, initiatives performance; • Individual performance.

A performance management system is said to be effective if there is an effective feedback mechanism.

2. What drives interest in Performance Management?

In the private sector, the desire to know where the organization is vis-à-vis its competitors drives the interest in performance management.

For the individuals, rewards could facilitate the need for performance management. In the public sector, it helps the government know how well it is doing in its programs, projects as well as its efforts to care for its citizens.

3. What are your thoughts on the relationship between Performance Management at organizational, departmental and individual level?

High performance individuals will lead to a high performance department, which will ultimately lead to a high performance organization. However, the overall performance of individuals in the organization can fully impact the organizational performance only when the strategic objectives of the organization are rightly cascaded to the department and then to the individuals.

Organizations can only benefit from the high capability of their employees if their potential is properly aligned towards achieving the organization’s mandate.

4. What are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management from your point of view?

Performance Management is beginning to gather the attention it requires and many organizations are now thinking about measuring their performance holistically. In my view, the key trends in performance management in 2014 revolve around the following: • The behavioral implications of performance measurement; • The use of performance measurement in the public sector and the effect on performance; • The role of performance measurement in the management of transformational change; • Fit between organizational context, strategy and performance measurement.

DECEMBER 2015 25

INTERVIEWS

In most organizations, performance is only considered from the financial perspective and the other aspects that lead to sustainable performance are not taken into consideration.

6. Which companies would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to Performance Management and subsequent results?

I have not been privileged to view the Performance management system in any other organizations apart from the organization I am working in. In my view, a model performance management system is the system that is able to come out with the right performance metrics, which measures the organizational objectives and builds intelligence from the metrics that are used for decision making and which gives the organization a competitive advantage.

7. Which are the main challenges in today’s Performance Management practice?

The challenges depend on the sector that the Performance Manager is reporting on. When it comes to the public sector Performance Manager, the challenge he/she may be confronted with is determining the informational expectations of the various stakeholders in order to build a performance measurement system that meets these needs.

In most organizations, performance is viewed from the financial perspective only and does not consider the other aspects that 26 DECEMBER 2015

lead to sustainable performance. In most public sector organizations, performance management is considered a nuisance, especially when the organization does not see the reason why it should report on performance.

8. What do you think should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes?

Most Performance Management tools are concerned with what to measure and how to structure the PMS, i.e. they try to answer the question ‘‘How to design the PMS?”.

Some are only concerned about the metrics that are generated, they do not take into consideration the intelligence factor, needed in building the required tools.

In most instances, the tools do not have a feedback and feed-forward mechanism.

I expect significant improvement in the performance management tools in the following areas: • Intelligence generation mechanism should be built into the system in order to assist management in its decision-making; • A scenario-generating mechanism should also be built in the performance management system that could help management in planning for uncertainties; • A feedback and feed-forward mechanism should be built into the system.

9. What would you consider best practices in Performance Management?

What I consider best practice in Performance Management is a Performance Management System that comes out with timely, relevant metrics and also adds intelligence to them, which helps management in making decisions.

10. Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs?

The aspects of performance management I think that should be emphasized during educational programs are: • How to determine the KPIs; • How to build up a dynamic performance measurement system; • How to evaluate the performance gap during strategy implementation; • Gathering Business Intelligence from Performance measures.

“

What I consider best practice

in Performance Management is a Performance Management System that comes out with timely, relevant metrics and also adds intelligence to them,

“

5. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research?

The aspect of Performance Management that should be explored in research is how organizations could use Strategic Performance Measurement System to readapt their strategy and close the execution gap during strategy implementation.

Another area that needs research is developing a performance measurement system that dynamically relates to its volatile environment, through its feedback and feedforward mechanism.

which helps management in making decisions.

11. Which are the limits in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management among practitioners?

The major limit in achieving higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management is the inability to cascade organizational

INTERVIEWS

Managing one’s work-life balance is actually not an easy task. One is bound most often to abuse his social life because of the pressure in the office and the need to meet up with a specific target in the metrics.

12. If you are to name, in a few words, the main aspects governing Performance Management today, what would they be?

Good performance management governance should make room for the following: • Stakeholders engagement – they should agree on the metrics for performance measurement; • Stakeholders information mapping for public sector organization (this indicates the metrics that are needed to supply the stakeholders with the expected information); • Strategic communication and awareness; • A feedback mechanism to re-adapt the strategy; • Dynamic strategic performance measurement; • Strategy renewal and re-adaptation.

13. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours?

Measuring performance outside working hours may not be as easy as you think; it is like telling a staff that no matter where he or she is, he is being monitored. This kind of performance measurement will put staff under pressure to deliver and also affect his social life, which could affect his ability to deliver in the long run.

14. Are you using any kind of personal performance measurement tools? If yes, please describe how this has influenced your life.

No. 15. Do you have any tips for successfully managing one’s work-life balance? What are your thoughts?

Managing one’s work-life balance is actually not an easy task. One is bound most often to abuse his social life because of the pressure in the office and the need to meet up with a specific target in the metrics. My tips for successfully balancing my work-life are: • Never postpone an assignment, execute it as it comes; • Monitor your personal performance weekly and adjust before it is too late.

16. Which are the recent achievements in generating value as result of Performance Management put in practice in your organization?

We have been able to develop a performance measurement system that monitors the organization’s performance. We have been able to distinguish between the organization’s operational performance from its strategic performance.

The operational performance was developed from the act that sets up the organization, whereas the strategic performance comes up from the strategic direction of the organization over a medium term period.

The strategic objectives are actually cascaded to various Departments and each department is expected to execute its mandate in order to ensure that the organization achieves its various strategic objectives. This has helped us to know whether we are on course to achieving our strategic objectives.

“

“

strategic objectives down to the various divisions/units and then to the individuals.

This failure to properly cascade the strategic objective affects the organization’s ability to execute its strategy.

Never postpone an assignment,

execute it as it comes.

DECEMBER 2015 27

INTERVIEWS

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PORTRAIT EVENTS

RAVEE RAMAMOOTHIE Founding Partner & Management Consultant at KPISOFT International Pte Ltd

Commitment to performance, commitment to people.

DIANA ZARNESCU

Introduction into the world of a Performance Management expert It was in 1990 that Ravee Ramamoothie first started working in the field of management. It took him no less than 2 months to occupy a managerial position. Hence begun his activity in the discipline that will ultimately end up shaping so many aspects of his life, conduct and philosophy.

4 years into his management career, Ravee became a CEO and held that position up until 2004, when the time had come for him to migrate towards an advisory position within a management consulting firm. From that point in time onwards, Ravee has funnelled his energy into conducting research studies and providing consultancy services within the complex discipline that is Performance Management.

2008 marked the next milestone that Ravee had pinned to his career.

Together with a group of partners, he had founded what was to become KPIsoft, a “global cloud software services firm specializing on performance management,” as Ravee himself explains.

Today finds Ravee constantly involved in managerial activities, along consultancy services, research projects and speaking engagements.

30 DECEMBER 2015

“My view of performance management took a 360 degree turn and changed forever since.”

PORTRAIT

We are dealing with people and humanity at large resonates better with heart and inspiration.

Turning points in a two-decade career The year 1997 fell under the negative influence of an economic downfall in the ASEAN region, which gave way to a sudden currency crisis. While most organizations had found themselves dangling from a thread in their battle for survival, some realized that it was high time to plan and implement unconventional strategies.

It was thinking outside the box that enabled Ravee to push his company out of the corner, and into a new existence. By maintaining the Asian headquarters on a total standstill, he transmuted the sales operation onto European territory. The lesson was learnt, and Ravee continues to hold that experience close to him, regarding it as one of the greatest lessons he had received in Performance Management.

Holding true to the complexity of the Performance Management discipline, Ravee remembers his departure from the corporate world, only to join the other side of performance, the side which is built on consultancy and advisory services. For him, this adjustment in the field approach had inflicted a 360 degree turn of his perspective and view.

Ever since, Performance Management was forever changed for this dedicated professional.

Inspiration is a book of many pages However, a leader in a certain field is never born as the sole result of his activity in a specific domain. We all strive towards excellence because we look up to individuals who we believe have already achieved this status.

Ravee Ramamoothie talks about research as an area of great importance. We are all a part of what we admire, because we strive to achieve a prominent status. Often enough, this desired condition is revealed to us while being engaged in research activities.

Inspiration comes from many sources. The one which probably bears the biggest influence for us all, is born from the people themselves: leaders, thought shapers, educators.

As a dedicated reader, Ravee recognizes the presence of multiple personalities that have applied a certain degree of influence on his approach. Among these, one peer stands out, namely Herb Kelleher, the CEO of Southwest Airlines. Herb sought the simplification of an airline business model while simultaneously seeking innovative approaches. As time had passed, Herb’s method proved to be so successful that it was further adopted and implemented by multiple international organizations.

Thus, in one career time, Herb Keller had revolutionized the air travel industry. Today, we can see organizational giants such as Air Asia functioning on the very principles and strategies that Herb Keller had put forth.

Other sources that we often reach out to are books. Ravee mentions one title that might not fit into the usual Performance Management library. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a 1000-year old manuscript detailing the tools and processes you can apply to find peace and happiness, through yoga. However, the connection to Performance Management begins to reveal

itself more clearly, the more importance we give to personal performance, or improvement outside working hours.

We all have our ways of reaching balance and gaining knowledge and, if reading is close to your heart, then you have that one book that sheds different knowledge with every single read. This allows you to keep coming back to it, but extract new knowledge with each new turn of a page.

However, we live in an age where cinema constitutes a valuable source for learning.

Shawshank Redemption is a story which teaches that patience and determination can alter even the direst of circumstances and Ravee lists this films among those that teach a valuable life lesson.

Stepping into a Performance Management career Ravee’s early days of being a management trainee allowed him to make the connection between a paper-bound organizational strategy, and real-life implementation alongside goals achievement.

Developing scorecards, monitoring, coaching and actually achieving established goals are all aspects that Ravee has faced in his early days of his management career.

Soon enough though, Ravee came to his own understanding of Performance Management or, as he regards it, the alignment of “the people of the organization to the organization’s goals through individual goals – scorecard, coaching and development to achieve company’s goals.”

DECEMBER 2015 31

PORTRAIT

Alignment is the heart of performance management.

About not having a Performance Management System Instead of enlisting the benefits of having one, imagine the lack of a Performance Management System within an organization.

Without this mechanism, an organization can only evolve for so long, before collapsing underneath its own processes. As such, Performance Management becomes a crucial element that drives and ensures organizational development.

For once, with more departments within an organization, come more various strategies which will eventually arise. Each business unit seeks to follow its own interests, which might not overlap with those of the company’s. This status quo is known as alignment, or lack of it, to be more precise.

Goals in such situation will most probably take longer periods of time to be achieved.

As such, alignment becomes a sensitive aspect since it is crucial to the organization’s continuous development and even to its proper functioning. Benefitting from an existing Performance Management system must pass the stage of being merely an annual salary / review instrument and become the system that provides a rightful perspective upon the organizational, departmental and individual performance. Only then can it push a company from its status quo into an ascending trajectory.

Thus, by simply imagining what the lack of a Performance Management system, or the improper use of one, Ravee is able to further isolate the most important challenges in today’s practice: alignment and misuse.

However, having a non-functional Performance Management System is, in the contemporary 32 DECEMBER 2015

context, either a temporary solution, either proof of lack of expertise, or ignorance. Bottom line, it’s either improve or remove.

Approaching Performance Management is approaching people Improvement begins with feedback and double loop learning. Expected results from such processes, as Ravee explains, are visible in the enhanced performance shown by a certain department. Motivation to improve is only created through a sense of purpose within the organization, and a transparent view of the execution capabilities of each organization.

Reward in itself is also the starting point of Performance Management. By ensuring rewards, you ensure work enthusiasm and, intrinsically, enhanced performance, as Ravee points out.

Thus, a total of 5 elements rise above other, in terms of Performance Management best practices. As Ravee Ramamoothie explains, alignment sits at the core of such a system, making possible all the auxiliary practices.

Following alignment, come measurable results which, in turn, give way to regular review and feedback loop. Linked to review is coaching and contextual collaboration, as a fifth element, followed by the last unit in terms of best practices, which is analytics, a trend setter in today’s business environment, linking processes to people and performance.

Ultimately, when the functionality of the Performance Management system increases exponentially, certain side-effects are triggered and begin to become more visible: people become happier at their workplaces.

The balance is maintained, on the one hand, by the organization having clear goals set and, on the other hand, by people having a clear understanding of their contribution to these goals. This balance enables employees to feel, above all tasks, processes and projects, that they are part of a wider plan. They hold the power to make a change and influence the outcomes of the company’s strategy.

This state is translated into purpose, reward and achievement. As Ravee Ramamoothie clearly explains: “ultimately, this chain of events, sustained over a period of time, provides contentment and happiness.”

Alignment

Measurable results

Review and feedback

Coaching and contextual collaboration

Analytics

Goals

Purpose

Motivation

Balance

Happiness

Trust

Leadership

Humanity

PORTRAIT

Goals may take much longer to achieve or, at worst, strategy may remain a mere academic exercise.

And this is also what he considers to be his greatest achievement. It is not the functionality of the Performance Management System in itself, but the results that a functional system ultimately leads to. And these results can be seen within the people of an organization: it is recognizable by a shift in mentality, attitude and behaviour that will eventually generate tangible results, and enable the entire organization to strive towards achieving the same goals.

Ultimately, however difficult it may be to trigger this chain of events, Ravee’s experience show us that it is realizable. The results are worthy of the efforts and energy engulfed by sustaining a Performance Management System.

Drawing the lines on what Ravee listed as the greatest achievement of Performance Management in practice, is becomes highly visible that it is the people who ultimately reflect the outcomes of this system. As such, Individual Performance Management becomes a crucial approach to overall performance.

Ravee’s perspective on managing people is based on humanity, above all. What he calls as “the foundational social architecture to the hard factors of Performance Management” needs understanding, trust and good leadership, among others, to grow. In his own words: “We are dealing with people and humanity at large resonate better with heart and inspiration.”

Obtaining the employees’ buy-in is a very important step in this process and, often

enough, it is an obstacle in the way of reaching higher performance levels. In this sense, participative management, along with having clear goals and alignment between employees and organizational strategy will guarantee, in most cases, to bring employees on the same page with the company.

Ravee’s experience has taught him that, by being able to participate, put forth ideas as goals and connect the employees’ contribution to the overall achievement of the organizational strategy, employees will offer their buy-in and also increase their sustained efforts.

Connecting work performance to personal performance Turning the page to managing performance outside working hours, Ravee draws attention to one aspect encountered in today’s environment: gadgets or applications, such as health apps and trackers, allow the user to record not only the evolution of his efforts, but also to set milestones of goals and embed push content notifications to bring forth reminders and encourage motivational levels to go upwards.

If at first, organizational elements migrated towards personal performance, it is now time to give back to the business world. As Ravee explains, these very features, that offer functionality to the gadgets and apps we use, will also enhance the business environment by “making it a personalised performance space with push content notifications which are contextual, time relevant and inspiring.”

Overall, as emotional beings, people strive mostly towards balance. To this respect, attaining equilibrium between work and personal life is one goal we all try to achieve.

However, this balance reflects an ideal condition that is bound to be broken, at one point or another. Work has the habit of spilling into our personal lives.

Ravee is oftentimes confronted, in his line of work, with situations where personal life becomes supressed under the burdens that work brings along. To this, Ravee keeps reminding himself “whenever these situations arise that this is temporary and I need to step out of this cycle. So this thought process keeps me aligned to my long term goals and not get caught up and perpetuate it without realizing.”

In addition, understanding your line of work and having a noble vision regarding the nature of your activities can push you forward in the direst of situations. “My vision is to help people and organizations perform better through my work.

So this keeps me going and contented even during most trying times,” is Ravee’s insight on this matter.

Ravee Ramamoothies ends with one valuable career advice, which is revelatory in itself: education, continuous reading, researching and peer engaging, alongside practicing the job in itself, are key factors to enlisting into an upwards professional trajectory, while also maintaining high satisfaction levels with your career performance.

He is a man who, despite numbering over 20 years in the same field, he has still kept in sight what is of utmost importance to Performance Management: the people.

DECEMBER 2015 33

EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD

GOVERNMENTAL PERFORMANCE: The Illinois Department of Public Health ANDREEA VECERDEA

R a novelty anymore. States have understood

eporting governmental performance is not

that future development can only be achieved by monitoring and improving present actions.

The State of Illinois is no exception.

It has developed a reporting system aimed at assessing the performance of all governmental agencies. The Illinois Performance Reporting System (IPRS) is coordinated by the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, responsible for analyzing state agency programs and budgets, allocating resources and measuring any progress achieved. The areas monitored range from education and health, to social services and public assistance, debt management, public safety and the environment. Another government with highly visible performance improvement results is the Namibian one, which has just implemented contracts for all ministries.

You can read more on that in this article.

In what follows, one can review the performance results for the Department of Public Health. The structure of the report is the same for all agencies, which facilitates comparison across agencies.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has as its core mission the following objective: to promote the health of citizens through the prevention and control of diseases and injury.

To achieve its goal, the department is actively involved in setting standards for hospital and nursing home care, in checking the safety of recreation areas or the quality of the food, by inspecting farms and plants. This constant 34 DECEMBER 2015

preoccupation for safeguarding citizens’ health is also shown by the various programs undertaken recent years.

targets. For each of the programs rolled out, an in-depth description is available, to serve as a presentation for the outcomes generated.

The most recent performance report shows the 2014 and 2015 results, as well as the 2016

The structure of the report describing one of these programs is available below:

8/5/2015 2:45 PM Agency

Program Name

Program Description

Target Population

Activities

Goals

Outcome

ILLINOIS PERFORMANCE REPORTING SYSTEM

Page #1

Department Of Public Health

Health Care Regulation Health Care Regulation performance licensing, inspections and Medicare and Medicaid certifications of long term care facilities, hospitals and other health care providers that are subject to state and federal regulations. The office also operates a 24-hour hotline, which people can call to register complaints regarding health care facilities.

State of Illinois Licensing, Medicare, Medicaid certification, inspections of health facilities that are subject to state and federal regulations.

To ensure quality health delivery systems in Illinois

Improve Overall Health of Illinoisans

PROGRAM FUNDING Appropriations ($ thousands) FY 2014 Actual

FY 2015 Actual

FY 2016 Recommended

58,170

69,147.9

73,676.9

FY 2016 Enacted

MEASURES Number of Licensed Long-Term Care Beds Reported: Annually

Key Indicator: Yes

Desired Direction: Maintain

Benchmark: 117,000

Source: IDPH

Baseline: 119,000

Baseline Date: 6/30/2010

Methodology: Count

FY 2014

FY 2015

FY 2016 Est.

111,219

112,000

112,000

FY 2017 Proj.

AROUND THE WORLD

Highlights of the reports: It states both the name of the program and the agency undertaking it; The program’s description, thus providing a better understanding of what it strives to achieve; The activities that are going to take place during the project are referenced, in order to identify the steps needed to be followed, so as to ensure a proper project deployment; The target population and goals addressed by the program are mentioned as well; The outcomes expected at the completion date.

Thus, it is clear from the beginning what are the benefits of the project, to whom they are addressed and which steps need to be followed to ensure its successful deployment.

The next part of the performance report refers to the financial resources needed

for this project. It provides details about the funds allocated in the previous and current year, as well as a projection for the next one.

The last part of the report contains information in regards to the KPIs used to measure the success rate of this project. In the example provided, the indicator used to track the progress of the initiative is “# Licensed long-term care beds.� Besides the name of the KPI, other important fields are used to better comprehend how the KPI is calculated, how often it is reported and what is its target.

For the KPI mentioned above # Licensed long-term care beds, the reporting frequency is annual, which means that the indicator is reviewed only once a year and the trend should be maintained just the same.

Moreover, a benchmarking level of 117,000 is provided for # Licensed long-term care beds. The benchmarked data source is either a national organization, a near-peer state agency or a specific source for the established best practice.

In addition, the baseline, referring to the earliest data registered for the KPI, is also mentioned as being as early as 2010. The methodology explains how the KPI is calculated, which are the previous results, current results and any future predictions.

This performance report format is similar to a Documentation Form, but with the added benefit of having embedded results. It comprises categories for both an Initiative Documentation Form and a KPI Documentation Form, but with performance data attached, making this a much more complex report model.

Having such a format for all running programs across governmental agencies aids in understanding the initiatives taking place at state level, their impact and the financial resources needed to be allocated. This way, the government can better distribute budgets, easily assess the initiatives that led to desired outputs and take corrective actions for the ones that did not achieve their goals.

DECEMBER 2015 35

AROUND THE WORLD

GRUMA MEXICO: A performance model built on innovation MARCELA PRESECAN

My father taught me something invaluable…

Research is the mother of development for a country, for a company and for people.

Roberto González Barrera, Founder, GRUMA Mexico

H Performance

aving understood the significance of Management System implementation, the Mexican business environment is setting out to be increasingly attractive to analysts and investors worldwide.

A world leader in corn flower and tortillas, GRUMA is a multinational company that has succeeded in conquering the world with its traditional Mexican products. Due to its unique two-way communication strategy with its stakeholders, the “Great place to work” management research and consultancy firm, awarded GRUMA “Best place to work at in Mexico” in both 2011 and 2013. Moreover, the “World Finance” magazine gratifies GRUMA with an award that recognizes the company’s achievement of the highest levels of performance in its respective fields of operation.

The birth of the corn flower and tortilla colossus began with Roberto Gonzales Barrera, who quit school to work in the groceries warehouses built by his father. In 1948, Don Roberto had his first encounter with corn flower. He bought a mill and started processing corn flour, in a time when cotton was the main product ruling all markets.

Having started as a family-owned enterprise, GRUMA is nowadays a multinational that 36 DECEMBER 2015

operates in over 40 countries around the world, and tortilla is one of the leading products in Mexico.

GRUMA Values EFFORT, COMMITMENT, PERSEVERANCE, TRANSCENDENCE

So how does GRUMA do it? How has it managed to build on traditional values and grow into a role model for outstanding performance achievements? Well first off, GRUMA has a well-defined strategy, integrating at its core the key components of any successful business: a clear and focused vision around its values and mission.

Second of all, GRUMA Mexico is built on a clearly-defined sustainability model meeting the needs of GRUMA’s customers, shareholders, employees and those of the general community. To ensure that these needs are well-attended for, GRUMA’s executives developed a stakeholder communication framework, which allows a close monitoring of all parties:

GRUMA Mission “To contribute to the quality of life of our customers and consumers everywhere we operate, by offering high-quality products and services that fit their lifestyles, cultures, and needs, generating dynamic and profitable long-term growth to create the greatest value for our shareholders, focusing mainly on our core businesses: corn flour, tortillas, and flatbreads.”

GRUMA Vision “To be the absolute worldwide leader in the production, sale, and distribution of corn flour and tortillas, as well as one of the main producers of flatbreads and other related products in Mexico, the United States, Central America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.”

Innovation is a vital component of GRUMA Mexico’s strategy for performance. Innovation is prevalent in the production and engineering processes, as well as marketplace practices.

The company’s research and development department is currently designing a line of pizzas, supplementing GRUMA’s product portfolio. Due to its deep understanding of worldwide markets, the Mexican company has become a lead innovator in countrypersonalized service models, products and packaging solutions: In Mexico: GRUMA launched the MASECA Antojitos, with low grease absorption, for a healthier alternative to flavor and better quality.

AROUND THE WORLD

In the United States: Due to an increased demand for organic, gluten-free products, the company launched its Gluten Free Flour Tortilla and the Tortilla for a Healthy Digestion. Recognizing the growing trends in chips consumption within the United States, GRUMA is continuously exploring options for snack production expansion.

In Central America: GRUMA launched its Maseca Roasted Tamale with Coconut (Maseca Tamal Asado con Coco) in Costa Rica and focused their efforts on improving the softness and flavor of TortiRica. In Honduras and Guatemala, GRUMA launched Maseca Tamale Ready Mix and packages were updated to display the Gluten Free and No Preservatives signs.

In Europe: GRUMA is looking to expand its brand image by targeting new markets such as Russia and Spain. In England, they launched three new lines of wraps from the Mission Deli Super Soft brand: Wholemeal, Mini Original, and Mini Tomatoes.

In Asia and Oceania: GRUMA is focusing on innovative publicity strategies to consolidate its position on the market and increase customer loyalty. For example, in Singapore, GRUMA sponsored the Asian

Basketball Championship and in Australia, the company launched a new Facebook page that presents GRUMA as the innovative, quality brand that it is.

Technological capacity is another significant dimension of the GRUMA Mexico operations, and for this reason the company sees technology as the main driver for both innovation and market position consolidation. Their information technology development effort is focused on supporting new initiatives in the communications field of operation, such as: social networking, on-line discount programs, increases in the company’s fan base etc. In 2014, BRUMA also developed a new Mission webpage, www.missionmenus.com, with the goal of further connecting with their consumers through useful content such as recipes, nutrition tips and news. What’s more so, beyond generating a higher degree` of loyalty for the company brand on behalf of consumers, this website was presented with the silver award for having the best design among the food and beverages websites.

Working environment quality of life within the company is monitored through key performance indicators such as: # Employees, # Employees with collective bargaining agreement, % Employees per business unit, # Man-hours of training and $ Capital invested in training.

The GRUMA Mexico Company stands as an example of the Mexican business environment, which is becoming more aware of the tools and techniques diligently used by performance management professionals, specialists and companies alike. Performance management terminology, such as strategy formulation, management by objective and economic value add, is no longer a challenge to most of the players in the Mexican business environment.

Although disconsidered in many of the today’s varying business environments, innovation seems to be the core value driver for multiple top-performing Mexican companies. At the same time, there is an increased need for refinement of individual performance evaluations at both employee and management level, since current appraisal models seem to lack consistency. In spite of the fact that a productive and efficient working environment is encouraged, the rewards and recognition programs are not always a part of human capital nurturing strategies. As much as there is a perceived affiliation with company-wide key performance indicators, reflecting on the human dimension of the organization, there seem to be only a few systems that accurately reflect on individual employee satisfaction and retention.

DECEMBER 2015 37

AROUND THE WORLD

REACHING THE RIGHT AUDIENCE IN NORTH AMERICA: A digital marketing perspective MIHAI PACULEA

M the last years, due to the evolution of the

arketing has significantly changed during

World Wide Web. Nowadays, it is much easier to reach the desired audience, at the right time. When thinking about the means of mass communication, such as newspapers, radio broadcasting and television, which have been present in our lives for many years now, we stumble upon some very relevant marketingrelated questions: who is a company actually targeting through its mass communication campaigns? How can it know if the targeted consumers have seen the message or have paid attention to it? And, most importantly, how can a company measure the impact of its mass advertising campaigns?

This uncertainty paradigm has changed in the era of Digital Marketing, which has become a marketer’s dream tool, due to the following activities it enables: Easy and fast data gathering: information about both current and potential customers, regardless of the distance between them and the company, can be collected; Creating databases by using this information; Sending customized emails to the database members; Creating groups of discussion on social media platforms, which only host the targeted audience members. Invite them to communicate with you in a “place of honesty”, where anyone can see what everyone else is sharing and react accordingly; 38 DECEMBER 2015

Promoting events to your social media connections; Promptly answering to complaints and suggestions; Placing ads for the targeted audience only, by using the Internet; Engaging consumers by developing different product-related games or apps for Facebook or smartphones. This enables creativity and it provides the consumers with both your message and means to have fun; No expensive physical input needed – all it takes is a computer, including the welldeveloped skills to use it; Not wasting resources by promoting products to people who are not interested in your company or offer; Measuring the impact of your campaigns by analyzing the consumers’ online behaviour: how many of them clicked on your links, when do they click on your Call to Action buttons, how much effort needs to be invested in turning them into actual customers of the company etc.

Targeting, measurement and lack of constraints when it comes to creativity are just some of the reasons why Digital Marketing is better than its older cousin, mass media communication tools. High-performing companies are nowadays aware of the importance of Digital Marketing, and they use it in order to obtain the best possible results, with less effort.

Digital Marketing in North America With some of the highest Human Development Index (HDI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the United States of America and Canada represent powerful states, with huge potential for business development and consumer empowerment. According to The United Nations Development Program, the USA’s HDI value was 0.914, while Canada had a HDI of 0.902. As shown on Statista, The United States of America ranked the 1st in the 2014 top of the countries by GDP (with 17,416.25 billion U.S. dollars). Canada had a GDP of 1,793.8 billion U.S. dollars, reaching the 11thplace in the same top.

The high values of the HDI and GDP are coming from intense social and economic activities. But in the same time, they are leading to even more intense activities, as marketers need to know exactly how to communicate with these developed communities. Therefore, marketers need to play their role in the efforts of creating a brand-related competitive advantage, as well as in attracting and maintaining as many customers as possible.

AROUND THE WORLD

education, occupation, income of the users, frequency and time of use). This way, you can make sure that you choose the right network for promoting your brand to the consumers and to get a high ROI.

What social networks do North Americans use?

As mentioned before, Digital Marketing is more efficient than any other form of marketing.

In 2014, it was estimated that 86.75% of the United States citizens had access to the internet. Canada had an even higher estimated percentage, namely 92.89% of the population.

Therefore, the majority of the consumers can be reached through Digital Marketing means.

When it comes to the development of social media in the United States, in March 2015, Facebook had the highest share of visits (53.4%), followed by YouTube (17.2%), Google+ (4.06%) and Twitter (3.1%). Each of the other analyzed social media networks (Reddit, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Answers, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr) had shares of visits under 2%.

On the other hand, a study conducted this January in Canada by Forum Research shows that Facebook leads by number of users in this area as well. It also leads when it comes to the average number of visits/week (9). This study took into consideration 4 social media networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. The results show that 59% of the Canadians have Facebook accounts, 30% have LinkedIn accounts, 25% have Twitter accounts and 16% have Instagram accounts. However, while Facebook has the highest penetration, Instagram leads in user satisfaction, 39% of users saying that they are “Very satisfied” by this network, while only 27% of the Facebook users stated the same. Instagram is also the second most visited social media network, with 6 visits/week.

Knowing as much information as possible about the social media behaviour of potential buyers in your area is essential in developing a successful social media marketing campaign. It is important to analyze the use of these networks and all the variables included (e.g. gender, age,

Of course, social media represents a powerful tool for promoting non-profit organizations too, as well as politicians, celebrities, cities, sport teams or anything else that needs attention and a strong base of supporters. The key is to research, gather and analyze information and use it for developing successful marketing campaigns, targeted on the right people, at the right time.

Newslettering and blogging your way to success in North America Sending email-based newsletters represents another way of promoting your products.

But you have to pay attention to the different time zones in the United States (which has 5 different time zones) and Canada (6 time zones). You can easily discover which time zone the people from your database come from by asking them to fill in their location when registering for the newsletter. According to a September 2014 Pew Research study, 61% of American workers consider the Internet “Very important” for their job, 35% described landline phones as “Very important”, 24% cell phones and smartphones and only 4% described social networks as being of high importance for their job.

personal blogs, therefore ensuring more attention will be paid to your platform.

According to a 2012 BlogHer and Vision Critical study, 61% of United States online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.

Content is very important for official websites. Having the right content can lead to higher awareness, better user experience and better results. Another Pew Research study showed that the Internet is an extremely important information source to Americans: 72% of them are satisfied with the amount of information available online today, while only 26% feel overwhelmed, and 81% of Americans report their internet and cell phone use have helped them in being better informed about products and services today than they were five years ago.

Paying attention to the characteristics of the North America internet users is essential in developing your Digital Marketing mix. This way you can reach the right audience, get their attention, nurture their engagement and eventually turn them into customers and advocates. Without knowing who you are trying to reach it is impossible to succeed and Digital Marketing solves this issue once and for all.

Creating a blog and posting relevant content for your organization is another way of getting more customers. The important fact about blogs is that they are great ways of nurturing engagement, and they have an important role in taking people further through the sales funnel: from prospects to actual customers. If you create great content and stories, people will refer to this content on their DECEMBER 2015 39

AROUND THE WORLD

STRATEGY FORMULATION: Emirates Identity Authority Strategic Plan 2014-2016 MIHAI TOMA

T is an independent federal authority in

he Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA)

the UAE that was established in 2004. EIDA’s main purpose as a governmental agency is focused on “the establishment of a modern population register in order to facilitate the obtainment of government services as well as to provide the required information for supporting decision-making, strategic planning and the allocation of sources in all vital sectors in the UAE”, as documented on their website.

Back in 2010, when the Population Register and ID Card System were their priorities in terms of strategic agenda, The Emirates Identity Authority was one of the first public institutions in the UAE that have developed and implemented a strategy and performance management system based on the Balanced Scorecard methodology and directives from the UAE Prime Minister’s office (PMO).

Since 2010, EIDA has already successfully developed and executed their 2010-2013 strategy and, in order to keep in line with governmental wide strategic directions, they set forward in developing their 2014-216 Strategic Plan.

This undertaking has been based on an approach containing five phases: 1. Strategic Analysis; 2. Vision, Themes, Objectives & Targets; 3. Strategic Initiatives; 4. Roadmap; 5. Change Plan.

40 DECEMBER 2015

The main activities within each of the five phases can be observed in the accompanying extract from the Strategic Plan.

Strategic analysis Analyze socio-economic and technological trends; Run stakeholder analysis; Benchmark leading organizations globally; Understand federal requirements and impact on strategy; Analyze Emirates ID’s internal strategy; Conduct PESTLE & SWOT analysis.

Vision, Themes, Objectives & Targets Update and enhance Vision statement going forward in light of the strategic analysis and of the country vision and strategy; Update strategic themes & objectives for 2014–2016; Define Strategic Key Performance Indicators and targets to track and measure progress towards objectives.

Strategic Initiatives Define strategic initiatives to accomplish defined goals; Define Operating Key Performance Indicators to track and measure the impact of strategic initiatives.

Roadmap Detail implementation requirements (costs, resources, risk mitigation); Define detailed implementation roadmap (timeline, milestones, owners).

Change Plan Craft change management plan to enable Emirates ID’s organization to undertake revised strategy.

In order to maximize the relevance of the strategic planning process, EIDA’s strategic analysis phase was based on reviewing five main sources of information: Reviewing the Prime Minister’s Office 2014-2016 strategic guidance and 2021 Vision; External and industry environmental scan; Benchmarking against management leaders;

global

ID

Assessment of Emirates ID’s existing strategy; PESTLE and SWOT findings from all sources.

summarizing

Results from the Strategy Analysis were used as key inputs in formulating the Emirates

AROUND THE WORLD

Mission Why do we exist?

Vision What’s our final Destination?

To Establish, Manage and Authenticate Personal Identity In The UAE.

Provide an integrated and advanced personal identity management system that contributes to the transformation of the government and the economy and promotes security and global competitiveness of the UAE.

Strategic

What are our coordinates for the next 3 years?

1. Reliability

2. Integration

3. Enablement

Ensure the application of the highest quality, currency and privacy of personal data in the population register.

Reinforce & expand the uses of the identity card in the various sectors in the state & activate it as a key reference in the authentification and validation of personal identity.

Support decision-makers with accurate and innovative solutions related to population demographics.

Objectives 1.1. Focus on data accuracy & integrity; Where should our crew focus their efforts during this journey?

1.2. Shift focus from mass enrollment to enhancing operational quality; 1.3. Enhance understanding of customers’ service requirements.

2.1. Offer authentification & validation services through multi-channel delivery; 2.2. Extend service enablement beyond public sector of UAE;

3.1. Conduct ”innovative” analysis to provide new & high-demand services linked to population demographic; 3.2. Leverage current assets to enable government decision-making.

2.3. Progress Emirates ID’s brand & educate public on capabilities & services.

1. EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICACY – Ensure that all administrative services are delivered in accordance with thee standards of quality, efficiency & transparency

What will enable us to do so?

1.1. Promote organizational excellence & learning.

1.2. Consolidate Emirates ID as a self-sufficient & sustainable organization.

1.3. Develop talent focusing on enhancing customer satisfaction.

1.4. Further leverage strategic partnerships.

Value Commitment to Quality

Integrity & Accountability

ID strategy for the upcoming three years.

In correlation with the mandate EIDA was given by the UAE’s federal government, the management team identified 10 key areas to address through the 2014-2016 strategy.

These were arranged in four Strategic Themes which are considered to stand at the basis of the Strategic Plan.

The four themes are detailed below, as described in the 2014-2016 Strategic Plan:

Innovation

Confidence

1. RELIABILITY (Identity Lifecycle & Data Management) – Ensure the application of the highest quality, currency and privacy of personal data in the population register; 2. INTEGRATION (Primary Identity Authenticator) – Reinforce and expand the uses of the identity card in the various state sectors and activate it as a key reference in the authentication and validation of personal identity;

Teamwork

Customer Centricity

3. ENABLEMENT (Supporting Decision Making) – Support decisionmakers with accurate information and innovative solutions related to population demographics; 4. EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICACY (Organizational Excellence) – Ensure that all administrative services are delivered in accordance with the standards of quality, efficiency and transparency.

DECEMBER 2015 41

AROUND THE WORLD

Their vision statement, another key aspect in formulating EIDA’s strategy, was also reviewed and redesigned. The question that they made sure their updated vision answered was “What’s our final destination?”

By answering this question and considering alignment with the federal mandate, the Emirates Identity Authority finalized their vision statement as follows: “Provide an integrated and advanced identity management system that contributes to the transformation of the government and the economy and promotes security and global competitiveness of the UAE.” In their journey towards articulating the Strategic Plan, one key aspect was developing clear strategic objectives that translate their vision and mission into concise items and provide the main focus of the organizations for the upcoming period.

Clustering the objectives on the four Strategic Themes was the last step in the process of structuring a crucial strategic tool: The Emirates ID Strategy Map.

The final step in the process was to ensure that the achievement of each of the objectives included in the Strategy Map can be monitored, measured and facilitated. To this end, the Emirates ID team selected Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that would measure achievement against established targets and established Strategic Initiatives that would serve as the catalyst for bridging the gap between current and desired performance levels.

As we can see, Emirates ID has selected three KPIs in order to measure its Reliability Strategic Objective: % Accuracy of basic data in population register; % Currency of data; % Number of incidents related to identity theft and identity database breakthroughs.

Furthermore, the accomplishment of the objective is supported by a set of four Strategic Initiatives: 1. Enrollment business process optimization; 2. Migration to Next Generation technology for Population Register, Identity management system, and data protection; 3. Enhancement of the Customer Experience;

Provide an integrated and advanced personal identity management system that contributes to the transformation of the government and the economy and promotes security and global competitiveness of the UAE.

42 DECEMBER 2015

4. Enhancement of the Back Offi¬ce Management Processes.

The same approach was followed for all of the objectives included in the 20142016 Strategy Map, resulting in a clear and documented Scorecard for the organization.

Emirates Identity Authority’s strategic planning process represents a good practice approach in formulating and structuring the strategy of a governmental agency. This case study shows the positive direction that public institutions in the UAE are moving towards, in adopting a clear, strategic and performant management system that will allow them to actively monitor and improve performance and, at the same time, provide a transparent and reliable reporting framework that the public can access.

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Benchmark your performance management and employee appraisals with regional leaders;

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Read more about the Forum by accessing: http://kpiinstitute.org/events/HR-Performance-Forum/

STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

EVENTS STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR DECISION-MAKING PROCESS? ANDREEA VECERDEA

M irrespective of their context. A woman’s

aking decisions is not an easy job,

decision to buy a certain pair of shoes may take as long as it takes a manager to decide upon a major organizational problem. The difference, however, lies in the data behind the decision.

On the one hand, choosing the perfect pair of shoes does not require any data - it’s a matter of taste. On the other hand, a manager’s decision has to be based on numbers and a hefty load of information, otherwise you might end up changing what’s not broken.

A survey conducted in 2012, by the Economist Intelligence Unit, on 607 executives worldwide, revealed an increasing need for data regarding organizational decision-making processes; it further highlighted the need to transition from decisions based on intuition, background and past experience, to decisions based on data: 50% of the interviewed executives argued that management decisions that are based only on intuition, or experience are seen as “suspect;” 66% of them thought that decisions are more and more based on “hard analytic information”;

According to the same survey, respondents expressed, on average, the opinion that Big Data has improved their organization’s performance by 26% in the past 3 years, and they believe that it will further improve performance by 41% in the next 3 years.

The idea that data leads to better decisions is also supported by other studies. Another such example is an academic survey conducted in 2008, on 179 large publicly traded firms from the U.S., which revealed that companies oriented towards more Data8%

8%

Telemetry - detailed activity data from plant/equipment

5%

10%

Geospatial data

15%

15%

21%

Website clickstream data

18%

18%

21%

Point of sale

9/10 of the interviewed executives concluded that any of the decisions they’ve made in the last 3 years would have been better if they’d had all the relevant data available;

Social media

Of course, data does not make decisions on its own - people make decisions. However, it is important to make relevant decisions!

Business activity data

44 DECEMBER 2015

Total

13%

Website clickstream data

If data is so important, how do we collect it?

From where do we gather what we need, in order to base our decisions on something palpable? As it can be seen from the graphic below, the first set of data details on business activities, followed by office documentation and social media. For consumer goods and retail companies, the most important source of information is the point-of-sale figures, followed by social media.

Consumer goods & details

Images/graphics

10%

Driven Decisions (DDD) have increased productivity with 6%.

71%

42% 7%

25%

27% 32%

57%

68%

STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

designed by Freepik.com

Now, here comes another issue: how do we integrate all this data? One must not forget that too much information can also be a problem. 40% of the interviewed executives complained that they have too much unstructured data, making it difficult to analyze and use it for proper, fact-based decisions. Moreover, 85% of the interviewed executives stated that the problem is not so much the volume of data, but the ability to analyze and act on it in real time.

In the beginning of this article, we emphasized the need to base decisions on data, as this leads to improved results.

In what follows, we will talk about the specific steps that need to be taken in the

decision-making process and the intricacies of making decisions in certain scenarios.

In the graph below we can see the 7 steps which need to be followed so as to ensure that proper decisions are made:

For this, it is crucial to develop a system where data can be easily integrated. CRM and ERP are examples of systems which enhance data integration and facilitate its analysis.

Furthermore, we need the right tools to properly analyze it and for this we can use any of today’s well-known Business Intelligence (BI) tools. Although these are mainly good for aggregating and analyzing structured data - not so useful when dealing with unstructured data, they still can come in handy.

Professor Alex Pentland, Director of the Human Dynamics Laboratory at MIT, stated that: “Data is turning the process of decisionmaking inside out. Instead of starting with a question or hypothesis, people data mine to see what patterns they can find. If the patterns reveal a business opportunity or a threat, then a decision is made about how to act on the information.”

So as we can see, we need data to make correct and informed decisions. What lies next for us? Read below about the 7 step decisionmaking process and the intricacies of making decisions in specific scenarios.

DECEMBER 2015 45

STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

The first step is to assess the present situation and identify the problem. Afterwards, you need to search for solutions and come up with ideas.

Once you have identified several solutions, you have to evaluate each of them and find pros and cons for every alternative on the table. In order to choose the proper one, you have to decide which option minimizes risk and costs and maximizes benefits. The next step is to implement the chosen alternative and monitor its execution, ensuring that it is implemented as agreed. The last step that needs to be taken is impact assessment, which means measuring the results of the implementation process, since by building on successful past experiences, any decisions you make in the future will have a higher chance of being successfully integrated.

Listed in the next paragraphs, there are some of the most commonly used techniques for ensuring that our proposed solutions are relevant, meaningful, and fit our organizational values and objectives, to offer a better understanding of how one can approach this process.

Brainstorming Used to increase creativity and generate as many ideas as possible. Its benefit is that the entire group participates. Ideas are not criticized, as the focus is on finding a solution and not on the person who generated it. This method is quite beneficial, since once all options are noted down and discussed, everyone can understand all of the viewpoints in the workplace. This way, either they improve their own ideas or end up combining two or more into one enhanced, comprehensive solution.

Affinity Diagram Used to structure the decision-making process. Besides stimulating creativity, this technique also clusters ideas into logical items, based on which decisions are easier to make. Group members usually post their suggestions on walls using post-it notes and then, based on the links that may appear between ideas, they are clustered under relevant labels. The resulting diagram provides a graphical representation of the proposed solutions, which eases the decision-making process.

Force field analysis Used to analyze driving and restraining forces in a given situation in order to have 46 DECEMBER 2015

an overview of the decision’s pros and cons.

Group members list all factors (forces) for and against the decision (resources needed in terms of money, time and people, easiness of implementation, implementation support, benefits, risks etc.) and then they assign scores to each of them, based on their importance/influence. In the end, they add up the numbers and the one with the highest score gets implemented.

Flow chart Used to identify the specific steps needed to implement each and every idea. The benefit of this technique is that it is a logical (it has a starting and an ending point), structured (clear tasks that have to be achieved) and focused problem-solving method.

Planning matrix Used to analyze the necessary steps, the persons responsible for ensuring their implementation, the deadlines and the necessary resources to achieve all of the aforementioned.

Unilateral decision-making Used when decisions need to be made immediately and there is no time for further analysis, or meetings. In this case, the decision is based on the background, knowledge, experience and intuition of the person deciding what works and what not.

Consultative/participative decision-making Used when a person makes a decision based on the added contribution of his coworkers. It allows everyone’s perspective to be presented and in the end, for efficiency purposes, only one person makes the final call, based on the information shared between him/her and the rest.

Consensus decision-making Used to allow all of the group’s individuals to freely express their ideas. This technique encourages debate and negotiation among members.

Vote decision-making A decision-making process used for large groups, due to its increased efficiency. The final solution is decided upon by the group’s majority, not necessarily based on a rigorous analysis.

All in all, what needs to be kept in mind is that although one might have a wide variety of techniques which can be used to smooth out

FLOW CHART designed by Freepik.com

the decision-making process, this does not entail using them all, but rather choosing the most relevant ones for every given situation.

More often than not, a combination of techniques is recommended, in order to avoid any bias.

But this begs the following question: how do we adopt decisions in different scenarios? Is the process the same? Do we use the same techniques? Find the answer below.

So far, we emphasized the need to base decisions on data, as this leads to improved results. We also discussed about the decisionmaking process and techniques we can use to ensure relevant decisions are made.

But what do we do when confronted with different scenarios? Is the process the same? Do we use the same techniques? In what follows, we shall present 12 different scenarios, grouped together based on their similarities regarding the decision-making process.

At organizational, divisional and departmental level and in the case of joint ventures, decisions are usually made formally, during performance review meetings, on a monthly basis. Consensus decision-making is used, because it allows all participants to express their opinions, and it is also time efficient. For these scenarios, prior to the meeting, we conduct analyses, identify causes and offer suggestions for improvement.

Therefore, the role of these meetings is to decide which alternative is the best so there will be no need to brainstorm one.

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3 º06

PLANNING MATRIX

AFFINITY DIAGRAM At employee level, decisions are formally made, during performance review discussions, but this time on a quarterly basis. Brainstorming can be used at the beginning of the meeting to come up with solutions for boosting current performance results. In the end, consensus decisionmaking is used to agree on the actions that need to be implemented. Both the evaluated employee and his/her supervisor are actively involved in this process.

In regards to projects, decisions are made both formally, during the operational meetings of the project team, and on the spot, if deemed necessary. If these are decided upon in meetings, force field analysis is usually used, in order to analyze not only ideas, but also constraints, responsible personnel and deadlines. If decisions are made on the spot, either the unilateral or the consultative decision-making technique is employed.

When talking about processes, decisions are only made when required to optimize a certain process. We cannot plan a certain date to make decisions regarding a process, as the need for process improvement emerges the moment employees identify bottlenecks in the system. Once the issue is identified, an official meeting can take place to come up with solutions and flow charts are used to make the right call in this scenario.

Moving on, in the quality management scenario, decisions are made every time there are quality checks on a product/ service. Decision-making, in this instance,

is not a formalized process, usually taking place on the spot, either through unilateral decree or consultative consensus, when the employee in charge of quality control requests the aid of another colleague. The decision is most often than not easy to make, as the product/service has to fulfill a precise set of requirements.

Another scenario is in the customer service department, where decisions are made both on the spot, during client meetings and monthly, during departmental performance review meetings. If decisions are made while negotiating with a client, then unilateral decision-making is used, as there is no time to make additional analyses or call colleagues to ask for support. In meetings, consensus decision-making is considered superior.

In relation to suppliers, decisions are made formally, during suppliers’ performance review meetings, on a quarterly/yearly basis, depending on the company’s policy. If suppliers’ results are not in accordance with the figures prescribed in the contract, the collaboration can be renegotiated or even closed. Usually, consensus decision-making is used in this scenario.

In relation to the Board of Executives, decisions are again formally undertaken, during Board performance review meetings.

These meetings take place yearly, to have an overview of all the coordinated activities.

Vote decision-making is usually used, but a consensus system can also come in handy.

In case one of the member’s performance

is lacking, the premier solution here is to replace that particular individual; in more extreme cases, a complete reshuffle can take place if the entirety of the Board has had underwhelming results.

The last scenario refers to our personal level, meaning the individual outside the workplace, in his/her daily life. In this case, decisions are made both on the spot and during a family meeting held as often as required. Depending on the complexity of the decisions being made and on the allocated budget, brainstorming, force-field analysis, unilateral, consultative, consensus or vote decision-making can be used to reach a satisfactory conclusion for one or all family members.

Since there is such a diversity of scenarios where we have to make decisions, we might be confused about what has to be done, when and how.

To summarize, we should keep in mind the following aspects, irrespective of the scenario in which we find ourselves: Base decisions on prior analyzed data; Make decisions as often as required by each and every given context; Follow the 7-steps decision-making process; Use the technique that you consider the most relevant for your situation.

DECEMBER 2015 47

STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

EMERGING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT TRENDS IN 2015 NATALIA NISTOR

1 2

CLOUD COMPUTING

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

3

BIG DATA

4

NUMBERS IN CONTEXT

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I old trends are left behind or revamped

n every sector new trends emerge, while

into something new to fit the overall theme of that specific area of activity. Performance management is no exception in that sense.

In 2014, the trends having the biggest toll on performance management and its development were those in the IT field of operation and the usage of different performance managementrelated tools, along with Big Data.

The 2015 buzzwords have somewhat changed as compared to last year, the emphasis being on rethinking and reinventing the whole system. In 2015, performance management trends revolve around the cloud, Big Data, modern planning practices or redesign of performance management systems. In what follows, we shall delve into analyzing several Enterprise Performance Management trends, along with a few general Performance Management trends.

Oracle, a computer technology corporation and provider of enterprise resources planning solution, tackled the subject of emerging trends in this year’s Enterprise Performance Management report. Following a survey conducted among decision makers who are part of their industry and consumer base, the company managed to get valuable insights on the most important aspects seen by decision makers as having an effect on performance management practices within the field.

1. Increase in cloud computing Enterprise performance management is estimated to register an important increase in the usage of cloud computing, with adoption rates going up from 12% to 22%, the main reason for switching to the cloud being speed and agility. Decision makers want their business to run quickly and efficiently.

They want to stop focusing on running the infrastructure and focus more on the growth of their business.

2. Mobile technology as a strategic tool With the development of the telecom industry and increased availability of smartphones, mobile technology represents nowadays an efficient information delivery tool that can reach anyone, anywhere, in no time. And it does not stop here - what started as an informationdelivery tool has now turned into an comprehensive one, comprising workflow and approvals for core processes such as planning or financial closure. The great advantage of embracing mobile technology is related to the fact that it brings growth opportunities and a competitive advantage.

3. Big Data – a major player 2014 saw a boom in terms of Big Data and nowadays the percentage of decision makers who intend to include Big Data in their planning processes increased three times more compared to last year’s. Big Data is therefore acknowledged by executives as

STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

immensely important, since it could give any business an advantage in front of their competitors. The greatest benefit of Big Data is represented by its endless possibilities.

4. Putting numbers in context Numbers in financial reports should be accompanied by qualitative and constructive criticism so that anyone interested could fully understand the figures that are being reported. Decision makers find it critical to associate numbers with qualitative analysis.

Apart from these, some other important trends observed are the need to be able to adapt and shift planning processes quickly, given the current business environment, the desire to understand costs practices in detail and the need to improve data governance. Looking at performance management as a whole, another emerging trend is giving more responsibility to employees. At InMobi, for example, a performance-based mobile ad network, they have decided to build on culture and values in order to keep their employees motivated and ensure they reach their full potential. Therefore, the company decided to put its employees in the driver’s seat by allowing them to be entrepreneurs and think big, take ownership and be accountable.

Moreover, InMobi, like many other important companies such as Adobe, Accenture, General Electric or Zappos, decided to change their old

performance management system. Having this in mind, apart from performance ratings, the company also resorted to other tools of obtaining insight and feedback from employees, such as participating in informal discussions across all organizational levels, which are also used for differentiating between employees.

Some other features of InMobi’s approach to performance management, which can be found to a certain extent in the approach of other organizations undertaking this shift, are the incorporation of variable pay in their fixed pay instead of falling back on quarterly bonuses, or the empowerment of managers to decide on pay increases and/or rewards for their staff.

In time, perspectives and trends change along with the overall contexts in which they emerge. Big Data and analytics, cloud computing and mobile technology, all of these tools are empowering both managers and employees in making decisions and rethinking the performance system.

Even more so, all the aforementioned elements have spurred great interest nowadays in the realm of performance management and as such, we only have to wait and measure the outcomes of these new developments, keeping a keen eye on what might come next year.

DECEMBER 2015 49

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STRATEGY AND BUSINESS PLANNING

CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND THE TRANSITIONAL PROCESS IN ORGANIZATIONS RADU FLOREA

Employees seek to work for organizations just as customers seek to do business with them: when they feel that the organization offers what they desire.

Edward E. Lawler III & Christopher G. Worley

T organizational change seems to be one

he lack of vision in implementing

of the main causes for which organizational change operations fail.

Edward E. Lawler III, a major comtributor to the research and theory of organizational development and effectiveness, saw change management without vision as a reactionary reesponse to resistance to change. Acknowledging this, Buchanan and McCalman, both PhD in organizational strategy and management, have introduced the practice of management through constant transition.

AVAILABILITY FOR CHANGE

WELL-ESTANLISHED VISION

INNOVATION AND PERFORMANCE

TRANSITION TO DESIRED STATUS 50 DECEMBER 2015

This requires regular interventions from management in order to capitalize on the importance of organizational development for stable and structured growth. Also, having a management system which focuses on continual transition is considered, by modern standards, to be a premier requirement for achieving organizational performance.

In order for a company to nurture a development-driven culture, it needs to ensure the presence of the following factors:

STRATEGY AND BUSINESS PLANNING

An availability for change (perceived as development) has to be present among the ranks of the organisation’s personnel; The change process must rely on a wellestablished vision. An organisation’s vision can be defined as the main goal and it needs to be in direct connection with the company’s general objectives; A transition from the current status to the desired status, known as the conversion level, which translates as the bridge between the need for change and the vision of the organisation; The establishment of the transition process as a permanent cultural element, which solidifies the organisation’s interest in promoting innovation and achieving performance.

Management processes and actions, focused on constant transition are the the most powerful elements within Change Management Theory, demonstrating results in multiple industry sectors and organizational archetypes. The consistent improvement of a company’s performance needs to rely on innovation. This latter factor can only be obtained by undergoing a cycle of steady and sustained shifts.

Therefore, organisational change (perceived as development) is seen as a must in order to reach further progress in today’s business world. Companies need to permanently expand and if they wish to ensure a smooth transition, an effective change management strategy needs to be deployed.

Also, perpetual growth requires leadership capabilities on behalf of a company’s managing staff, which need to be manifested in a structured and development-oriented manner.

Leadership is thought to be the quintessential requirement for the succesful implementation of a change & improvement process.

John Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor, defines leadership as being the most important factor for implementing progression. Considering his eight-step theory for succesful change, leadership is the only element directly influencing the sucessful transition to a superior step.

A transitional process – implicitly the actual change process refered to as development, relies heavily on leadership. This can be manifested in two different ways: through pulling and pushing; each of the two affect the transition process differently and can have contrasting results, depending on each organisation’s system.

A. The „push” method involves the passing of information without soliciting opinions from employees. Although this kind of approach has short term results, it is not consistent with an effective transitional process. A leadership „push” method is an autocratic management approach that cannot be considered as a sustainable solution for implementing development programs.

B. The „pull” method has the tendency to reduce resistance to change from employees.

From a leadership perspective, pull methods are considered to be desirable in long term transition processes, oriented on development. „Pull methods” generate win-win situations, and are considered as being customary of participative leaders who focus on people management. Pull leadership in a change scenario must focus on the contribution brought by the enterprise’s management on the changeover mechanism.

Considering the fact that constant shifts are inevitable nowadays, leadership can be seen as the key factor for enhancing business processes, deploying development programs and achieving superior performance standards in a fluctuating environment.

Strong leaders are the backbone of any reliable development process.

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5 EMERGING MANUFACTURING TRENDS TUDOR MODRUZ

T crucial development stage driven by modern trends.

he manufacturing industry is heading towards a

Production facilities have evolved from being dirty and unsafe workplaces, into modern and sophisticated plants with powerful technology and complex data systems. Stateof-the-art manufacturing systems have rendered human intervention to mere button pressing at the beginning of the production cycle.

The vast application of new technologies such as: Internet of Things, SMAC Stack and Next-shoring are pushing the concept of manufacturing to new heights. Advanced technologies provide more speed and precision alongside efficiency and flexibility to the production cycle. The entire environment around a manufacturing plant is undergoing important business transformations, which are also influencing distributors and retailers. Shifting consumer expectations determined a more aggressive and competitive behavior among the entire supply chain ecosystem.

The continuous shifting of labor demographics, combined with today’s tech development are steadily shaping a new business model. In order to be economically stable, retailers must find new paths to sell their products faster and at affordable prices, which will make it so that manufacturers produce more, with distributors having to reduce their delivery times. Therefore, everyone through the supply chain must adjust their business model to be able to cope with consumer demands and expectations.

However, new options and strategies are emerging, which will help supply chain stakeholders to remain viable and active on the market. The following 5 upcoming manufacturing trends are promising quick improvements to each and every organization that is willing to embrace them.

1. Internet of Things (IoT): Is a cutting-edge manufacturing technology which enables machines to connect and “communicate” with each other

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52 DECEMBER 2015

STRATEGY AND BUSINESS PLANNING

via an internet infrastructure, ultimately eliminating human intervention. Machines can detect problems and send instant notifications to other devices or users, calling for immediate action. Implementing Internet of Things technology will result in swift improvements for any manufacturing plants by generating less waste, increasing quality and developing greater visibility of the production cycle by using data analytics.

2. SMAC Stack: Represents the linked strategy of social, mobile, analytics and cloud approach, an essential new technological toolkit for improving organizational efficiency, customer engagement and growth opportunity. Today’s economic forces are pressuring manufacturers to change their conservative approach of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” to a more modern, innovative one.

The tools offered by SMAC stack are of different importance to different organizations, but its main objective remains helping them increase production efficiency and results.

3. Social Media: Represents the virtual network for people’s interactions and opinions. Social media networking determined organizations to become more consumer-oriented and abandon the classical outdated business-tobusiness model. Thanks to the evolving social network environment, customers are able to search, compare and purchase various products with just a few mouse clicks or finger taps. Manufacturers must have an active presence on these online platforms and use them for commercial aims or for increasing the awareness of their brand and products.

connectivity issues. Nowadays, cloud computing software is reliable, safe and stable, which determined overseas organizations to embrace them due to their efficiency and quick access to information. By implementing this type of technology, manufacturers will gain enhanced control over the quality of data production, increase the speed of production and eventually reduce costs.

Today’s emerging technology is the cornerstone behind the growth we are witnessing in the manufacturing industries, and will play an even greater role in the future.

Early adopters of these revolutionary innovations will have secured a strong position on the market, leaving their competitors trailing until they realize that all the above-mentioned developments will actually help them survive. What’s more so, all this new technology shall completely alter the manufacturing industry in the near future, by further developing 3D printing to suit large scale purposes, which will forever transform the way companies design, manufacture and sell their products.

In addition, one must not forget that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environment inside the manufacturing department and of the fact that companies can measure every aspect of the production cycle, from inputs and outputs to waste and cost reduction.

As a result, they are demanding wider transparency from a production, labor and cost standpoint, which in turn puts great pressure on all supply chain stakeholders to outperform their competitors.

4. Next-shoring: Is the strategy of moving the production closer to the end customer. Due to the need of a more specialized workforce to handle today’s modern equipment and the continuous rise of wages in Asia, many organizations are thinking about bringing the production plants closer to the customer. Furthermore, the growing demand of customers, combined with increased shipping costs and the need to deliver products faster, made next-shoring a viable development strategy to be taken into consideration.

Implementing this strategy will allow manufacturers to substantially decrease the costs of shipping and warehousing, by increasing product replenishment on the retailer’s shelves.

5. Cloud Computing: Represents an internet based technology that enables connected devices to gather, manage and process data.

Some manufacturing sites are still concerned about using cloud computing to store their data, fearing security and

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DECEMBER 2015 53

EVENTS EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

EMOTIONAL BRANDING OR HOW TO ENGAGE CUSTOMERS EMOTIONALLY ROXANA BARBU

D

o companies know how to engage their customers? Or do they lose that battle in front of their competitors, who sell the same products and services? It is no secret that customers emotionally filter what they buy – namely, if they like or appreciate something, they will buy it. As such, companies should be able to trigger positive emotions in their clients and build strong connections with them.

It is well-known that long-term relationships are very hard to break and leave behind, but this raises another question: how should companies build a proper emotional connection with their customers? One can try many different methods for achieving this goal but, from my perspective, the most important are the following: 1. 5-D branding For a long time, marketers created bidimensional brands, focusing only on two senses: sight and smell. But in this changing business world, companies need to have a greater sensory approach to include all five senses: taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing.

Products or services which incorporate most of the five senses have a larger success rate on the market. Let us explain each of them: Taste: Brands may find it difficult to incorporate taste in their products, if they are not fit for consumption and, as a result, the food industry has a very solid foothold in this area of expertise. The products generated by this industry can 54 DECEMBER 2015

be sour, sweet or bitter – the challenge lies in forecasting the tastes which potential customers may appreciate. After the taste test, a client decides if an item is worth his/her money, or not. In this case, the emotional response triggered by their sense of taste plays a big role.

Smell: Specialists estimate that 75% of clients’ emotions are generated by what they smell. It is a noteworthy trigger in the emotional memory of a customer and it may develop a willingness to buy large quantities, repeatedly. The perfume and food industries take advantage of the way they can recreate this sensory addiction and try to attract more clients by placing their products in front of shops or in big commercial venues, where their aromas can charm more individuals.

Touch: Packaging is an essential element for a product. Many customers want to touch what they buy, to feel the shape of the product held in their hands.

Some brands succeed in creating an unforgettable package that even if broken, can still be easily recognized. Many clients consider this sense the most important one after sight, because they can evaluate goods via touch.

Sight: Brands focus their attention on the image of their products or services: shapes, colours, sizes, because they know how important appearance is to their clients. The first sense used by customers,

when checking out a product is sight. If a product has an innovative design and the right hues, then the chances to be bought by prospective clients will increase. A very important element to be taken into consideration is the colour used on packages or in the logos. All brands know that coloration can trigger different emotional responses in a client’s mind and influence moods and behaviours. For example, red makes clients feel energized and alert, blue means peace, sincerity and confidence, green stands for nature and life and so forth. It is crucial for brands to use the right colour in their logos and products in order to communicate the most suitable message for their buyers.

Sound: This sense can trigger many emotional retorts in a client. Sounds can make him smile or cry, thus generating a plethora of emotions from happiness and fascination to sadness and boredom.

Customers like to listen to music, dance or even play an instrument and in this way, brands can leverage an advantage in their own favour, by using specific and unique sounds to win over clients.

2. Building trust The second method for creating a strong emotional connection with clients is by meeting their expectations. This way, they garner fidelity for your brand and trust it.

If a brand has quality products or services and it is client-oriented, then the company becomes more trustworthy and reliable.

Although these elements cannot be obtained overnight, that firm may gain respect and loyalty from their customers in time by being patient and strengthening its’ existing patterns, if they prove successful.

3. Triggering positive emotions When a customer buys a product, the entire process is filtered through his emotions. If he/she loves a brand, then he/she will buy its products or services, no matter what. A company should focus on this aspect and make people need its products. A brand must stimulate emotions like amazement, joy, happiness, surprise, curiosity and satisfaction, in relation to the company’s products. It is not easy, but it’s vital for a company to do this and the straightway is by creating innovative products and services.

By using a full sensory palette in a product, being creative and meeting clients’ expectations, brands are able to build strong emotional connections with their clients, ties which are very difficult to break. Any business triggering positive emotional responses in their customers can become a dominant force on the market and, consequently, their return on investment will be increased. A more humanized brand can create a closer relationship with its customers, it can empathize with them, and offer well-suited products for the market.

By combining these factors, it is safe to assume that any company will be well on its way to becoming a market leader.

EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

THE CHALLENGES IN BUILDING AN EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE CENTERED ECOSYSTEM MARIUS BOGHIAN

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I one

have recently had a discussion with Human Resources representative, looking to recalibrate the KPIs for employees in his company, in order to get a more accurate representation of their performances. As the discussion went on, it turned out to be a far more exciting project than a simple implementation of KPIs across the organization.

Both for this company and for others, the actual challenges they’re facing are typically related to a wider range of aspects - from employee retention and talent acquisition, to covering the skills gap needed to design a work environment suitable for reaching higher levels of engagement.

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Having KPIs in place is not the all-in-one solution. Basically, KPIs provide the snapshot of your current performance. By measuring and comparing it to the set targets, you add just one piece of a complex organizational puzzle.

Now that you have the results, the real question is: what will you do with them?

This is where all major stakeholders, from CEOs to line managers, come and take their share of responsibility to build an employee performance centered ecosystem. It simply isn’t limited to just another HR responsibility.

Together with a robust and unbiased use of key performance management tools (strategy maps, scorecards, dashboards, KPIs, performance

discussions and evaluations etc.), organizations have to put in place and align all the others pieces of the puzzle, such as their compensation and benefits system, rewards system, talent and leadership management strategies, learning and development frameworks and so on, in order to consolidate their human capital quality, engagement and retention plans and moreover, their availability for future growth.

Putting head to head the findings of large scale reports, such as the Global Human Capital Trends in 2015, Global Talent Management Rewards Study (2014) or Global Workforce Study (2014), significant similarities come to surface, especially regarding the concerns and challenges faced by companies in their endeavors to create a stable

EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

and sustainable performance ecosystem. Some of these challenges:

While net payment, as a reflection of rank, together with a constant influx of promotion opportunities are commonly seen as premier work stability factors from both perspectives, the differences start appearing from the 3rd point onwards.

Are directly linked with employee performance practices; Have a direct impact on organizational growth, on the long run; Seem to now be a part of the HR and the Top Management strategic objectives.

A shift in driving sustainable employee performance As seen in various research articles and also highlighted by the Global Human Capital Trends in 2015 report, evaluating employees against some meaningless targets is not enough to support a performance culture.

Numbers carry their own weight, but they are limited when talking about unleashing an employee’s latent potential.

This is why performance discussions with direct and real-time feedback focused on developing employee potential are the new tools to be used for linking employee aspirations to organizational goals and strategies. Of course, we still need to monitor results, but it serves no purpose to wait six months until the next round of appraisals for outperformers, or reassessments for underperformers. Waiting too much could be interpreted as a sign of acceptance of low performance, which in turn leads to the demotivation of high achievers. There is an explicit need for managers to differentiate between employees in their efforts to cultivate performance and reward it.

Rewards vs compensation One of the tendencies noticed by the Global Talent Management and Rewards Study (2014) was related to level of rewards for employees with outstanding results (exceeding or far exceeding their targets) that aren’t significantly different when compared to the ones for average and low performers. As such, it is not surprising to read that more than half of the total 1,600 organizations participating in the study declared having problems in retaining highpotential employees and top performers.

One solution for this might be to give managers access to discretionary budgets, which will place them in a suitable position to reward outstanding performances throughout the year, thus stimulating a very

good practice. At the same time, you get to maintain a differentiation mechanism between the compensation system, and each specific performance discussion and evaluation, which will serve to underline the new organizational focus.

Retention, a challenge in keeping the highly qualified personnel in-house A well thought-out career planning structure, where job architecture is combined with specific competences requirements adapted to different positions, levels and overall talent mobility, becomes a key driver in fostering retention in a global context, characterized by volatile labor market. Just above 40% out of the 32,000 employees surveyed in the Global Workforce Study (2014) see their organization as doing a good job at retaining highly qualified employees.

In a very interesting comparison between retention drivers, from an employer’s vs an employee’s perspective, one can isolate some very clear indicators that should draw more attention from organizations:

One of the starkest differences is the length of commute factor: while seen as important by employees, it was not even identified by employers as being a valid driver. To a large extent, length of commute could be associated with a high awareness-over-time value, related to work costs. Metaphorically speaking, it is part of the price paid for getting a salary and, as time goes on employees, as well as organizations, tend to become more and more cost efficient.

Another difference we can see is the learning and development opportunities answer on behalf of the employees and the prospect of challenging work, supported by employers.

It’s not that employees no longer appreciate L&D initiatives; they are simply more and more interested in their effectiveness and ROI over their work.

By crossing these findings with the information in the above-mentioned studies, I noticed some interesting trends on the redesign of internal learning experiences, which are aimed at addressing an employee’s needs for development, and avoiding critical skills shortages in the medium and long run.

In my next article, the L&D challenge in creating a performance ecosystem will be scrutinized, alongside another subject of interest: the key role of leadership and management in sustaining a solid performance infrastructure and building up success.

Retention Drivers Employee

Employer

Salary

Salary

Career advancement opportunities

Career advancement opportunities

Trust/Confidence in senior leadership

Relationship with supervisor/manager

Job security

Manage/limit work-related stress

Length of commute

Learning and development opportunities

Relationship with supervisor/manager

Short-term incentives

Manage/limit work-related stress

Challenging work

Source: Global Workforce Study (2014)

DECEMBER 2015 57

EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

MANAGING DIFFICULT EMPLOYEES A topnotch leadership skill CEZARINA BARBIERU

Some of the most frequently mentioned traits identified by researchers, characterizing these difficult personalities are: negativity, unsociability, exploitation, victimization, indifference andnarcissism. As per Kaye and Loehr’s interpretation, the most demanding employee profiles are as follows: The AWOL: This type of employee neglects his/ her job, by constantly “forgetting” important tasks, having things come up at the last minute, being often late or even disappearing altogether. His/ her deadlines are missed, tasks remain unfinished and tensions rise among the rest of the staff, because everyone knows that somebody has to cover his/ her duties again and again; The Grumbler: It is very hard to communicate with The Grumbler in an office environment, and even outside it.

They constantly complain about everything and their tasks hardly meet the deadlines. Most often, a grumbler squashes not only a team’s enthusiasm, but also kills every good idea with his/ her negative feedback;

N difficult-employees challenge, in which their managerial skills

owadays, more and more entrepreneurs have to undertake the

will be thoroughly tested.

Although it is believed that their workplace can staunchly defend itself against such a trial – by permanently developing and nurturing a strong organizational culture, characterized by transparency, there are many different and trying personalities you have to keep track of so as not to end this process in failure.

To help out busy managers handle difficult employees, Jezra Kaye and Anne Loehr wrote ”Managing the Unmanageable: How to Motivate Even the Most Unruly Employee”. The book does not only present strategies for dealing with the difficult-employees challenge, but also states the most commonly known “types” of employees that can found in almost every organization. As we all know, difficult people can negatively impact team performance. A good business leader has to develop the right skills in order to manage the unmanageable employees and help his/her company steer towards success.

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The Rude-nik: Raised voice, hissy fits, name-calling, rudeness, aggressiveness, all of these are the “gifts” such a person shares with his/her teammates at the workplace. Difficulties arise especially when trying to communicate with a Rude-nik, since this tends to flare up his/her arrogance.

The Wallflower: Usually it is hard to say if this type of person is either extremely insecure, extremely shy or simply not interested in being proactive at work. This employee may be found sitting alone even at lunch and not willing to build a relationship with teammates. In time, it gets too difficult to communicate and work with this individual, especially when a leader tries to develop a teamwork spirit.

EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

The aforementioned characters are the most nerve-racking types of personalities a manager and his fellow staff have to handle in their day-to-day activities. Naturally, a company which has well-established goals and provides a strong organizational culture usually does not encounter this issue, but it is commonly known that difficult people have a way of showing up everywhere.

Coming to the managers’ aid, Jezra Kaye and Anne Loehr identified the so called “5 Cs”, five strategies that will aid leaders in developing the right skills: Commit or Quit Choose to either take on the challenge of managing the person in a different way or simply quit.

You have to take into account both alternatives and choose the one that bring less harm to your company.

Communicate Having an honest conversation with that specific employee is mandatory in identifying the problem. Usually these types of conversation include clarifying organizational goals, job role and engagement.

Clarify Goals and Roles Although employees often think they know what it is expected of them, managers quickly realize their employees did not accurately understand the right goals they should be aiming for and roles they should be filling.

Coach This is a strong management tool, which allows managers to deal with difficult employees’ behavior, changing it so that they become engaged at the workplace.

Create Accountability Take some time to create a trustbased relationship with your employees and a strong management system, where everyone can improve at their own individual pace.

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Overall, managing difficult employees is never straightforward and it can take years to develop these skills. But when leaders identify the hardships facing each employee, we can safely assume that

a step has already been made towards finding a solution. The best business leaders will always act for the good of the company, in order to generate the most beneficial workplace environment.

DECEMBER 2015 59

EVENTS PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

WHY DOES IT TAKE MY BANK 90 DAYS TO APPROVE A LOAN? MARCELA PRESECAN

T keep

here are two major components that banking operations spinning: deposits and loans. However, battles are never carried out for deposits. The banking industry is all about lending.

Observers, however, can’t but notice the irony. It is loans that yield the highest profits for banks, but they can also be a bank’s premier cause for financial failure and risk. Therefore, a bank’s ability to manage the performance of its lending operations is what dictates its place and position on the market. So how should a bank manage its lending operations, and for what purposes?

€

How? By selecting the right KPIs to analyze the performance of lending processes; By making use of the adequate KPI selection techniques; By maximizing the balance between qualitative and quantitative KPIs; By constantly monitoring the performance of lending operations; By regularly recalibrating the lending performance framework and continuously adapting to the shifts in the banking industry.

For what purposes?

$

$

Effective loan operations can reduce a bank’s exposure to risk; Educated front office personnel can reduce the paperwork turnaround time and, therefore, increase customer satisfaction with the bank’s service levels; Efficient back office analysis contributes to the optimization of lending process flows; Quality lending services can minimize the risk for loan defaults and favor the reputational index of the bank.

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Someone told me the other day: “It takes 90 days for a mortgage loan to be approved in our country. How can we reduce this time from 90 days to 14 days? 14 days sounds better, doesn’t it?”

There can be multiple causes to this extended loan approval cycle time, and the most straightforward of them is the process itself. So, the first thing we can do is set an objective to improve the process, which in this case would mean enhancing the lending, approval and disbursement times.

We can use indicators to assess the actual performance of lending operations, and thereon, set targets for these performance variables that help us improve the overall mechanism.

So, in this case, the objective is simple: “Expedite the lending approval process.”

Some of the KPIs that can help support this objective are as simple as: # Retail loan processing cycle time and % Past due loan approvals. The first KPI helps me calculate an average against the minimum and maximum loan-processing times. The second KPI tells me how many of the loan applications submitted for approval are past due.

Self-assessment is often the first step towards improvement. And if I were a bank I would first want to know if I indeed have a problem with my lending processes in terms of loan

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

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processing time. By calculating the average loan processing time and comparing it with national benchmarks, I can easily figure out whether my loan approval time is within or outside of boundaries.

By balancing the # Retail loan processing cycle time with % Past due loan approvals, I can get an account of both the amount of time it takes the bank to approve a loan and the quality of the loan approval process by calculating the percentage of loans submitted for approval that are considered past due.

If the % Past due loan approvals are starting to weigh heavily on my lending operations, this either means that my loan-related activities are inefficient or that my target for loan approval time is not properly set. Setting unrealistic targets can have damaging outcomes, especially when they are not properly documented.

By using the Balanced Scorecard approach, I can cluster this objective under the internal processes perspective and complement it with a couple of other goals such as ensuring portfolio growth and achieving compliance with regulations. Setting KPIs for these other two objectives ensures that, as far as my internal processes go, I am not only expediting the loan approval time, but I am also trying to ensure portfolio growth to keep my operations going and attain compliance with regulations to reduce aversion to risk.

In conclusion Why use a Balanced Scorecard approach to optimize lending operations? Here are a few benefits: The Balanced Scorecard provides executives with an architecture that translates the organizations’ strategic objectives into a coherent set of measures that drive performance; It allows companies to compare past results with current ones and set performance targets for future achievements; It emphasizes the importance of cascading strategic objectives to business units and further down, up until the individual level, while suggesting the need for a compensation system that links individualrelated measures to strategic ones; To complement the financial perspective, the Balanced Scorecard introduces three additional nonfinancial measurement categories, which help provide an extended view on performance; The major strength of the Balanced Scorecard is that it molds together business vision with strategy, while ensuring companywide acceptance of the enabled performance measures to achieve the overall desired state of performance; By analyzing Balanced Scorecard results, performance committees can identify causes for underperformance and suggest solutions for improvement.

DECEMBER 2015 61

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

GAME MEASUREMENT A recipe for success TUDOR MODRUZ

T

he most popular sport worldwide, attracting millions of fans, beliefs and emotions each year, is without any doubt soccer. Even if soccer is the most loved sport in the world and people involved spend millions of dollars on everything related to it, making a quantitative performance analysis still represents a challenge because of the tactical complexity and disrupted movements of the ball throughout a match.

Other appreciated sports like basketball or handball, can develop complex measuring systems to reveal each and everyone’s contribution to the final result due to the fact that there are fewer players on the court/pitch during a game.

Now, although soccer games don’t rack up numbers, since the whole team

collaboratively works for a mere few goals, in-depth and complex measurements can still be generated for every game, since stats like shots on target, recoveries and successful passes typically are not a great amount of information to be scrutinized and can prove to be a useful tool when gauging player performance or postmatch analysis.

Moreover, the crucial aspect of winning is achieved by the degree of cohesion and individual performance of all the players in a team. Therefore, player’s roles and abilities are mixed together with the hope of achieving positive results.

Combined player attributes bring value to the overall performance of the team.

The real dimension of a soccer player’s performance is misleading, because individual performance can be masked

by the team’s strategy; scoring and assisting have different measurements but those count less when taking into consideration specific objectives that each team has in mind. As an example, an individually-gifted player may wish to undertake a risky play, which might net him a flashy goal but can also backfire and result in loss of pressure. This is known by the coaching staff, who instruct him to perform team-focused plays; ultimately, his own performance measurement may come out a bit on the thin side, but it may be what it takes for his team to win.

Monitoring player’s performance during training sessions enhances staff knowledge about the current team and player situation and helps coaches improve individual preparation sessions in accordance with what is needed.

Coach observes

Athlete performs

Performance analysed

Coach plans practice

Related to past performance

Figure 1. Diagram adapted from Franks et al. (1983) representing the coaching process

Coach conducts practice

Over the last years, various soccer analysis systems have emerged on the market, each one offering different statistical information: Basic game systems simply analyses the match in real or recorded time, generating basic data inputs for statistical information like tackles, passes, number of goals; Video montage software gives coaches the opportunity to slice a match in parts and create a highlights video with the most significant bits of it, thus being able to extract and visualize the information they want. This measurement is known as a digital time code, and specific match events such as goals, tackles or passes are recorded exactly when they occur;

a different color assigned to it. Players’ color distinction, complex trigonometry, mathematical algorithms and digital video/image processing techniques provide a higher degree of accuracy for performance measurement, because it attempts to avoid other moving objects like referees, substitutes or staff members; Global Positioning Systems could represent the next big thing in sports. By implementing a GPS-based system which will analyze a match or training session’s performance, we can create real-time, physical activity profiles for players, offering coaches the possibility of having an instant change to an event on the field. GPS systems have the advantage of being extremely accurate if the portable

“You always have to be at the top of your game and you’re always improving because of the people around you. I train the way I do every day because in the end, I love what I do. When I’m having a rough day, I remind myself how great my job is.”

Shannon Boxx, 2008 interview

Modern digital cameras, sensitive pads and voice recognition systems, which can be connected to a computer-based software solution have made data input speedier and more precise, leaving less room for errors. But this entire system relies on a match analyst, who ultimately can press a wrong button and mess up a player or a team’s statistical performance.

This kind of mistakes led to the development of next level of soccer performance monitoring, made by advanced systems which automatically input data for each player on the field; Cutting-edge computerized systems that will automatically calculate the position of a player and track his movements, are growing in importance nowadays. These type of systems require the installation of many high resolution video cameras, in order to cover the entire pitch so that each player’s position and movement is always recorded, since every single device has

GPS sensor if mounted on a player. Due to the high impacts often received in soccer, the microchip transmitters may break unless they are robust or well-protected. These performance measurements can provide detailed comparisons between players, enhancing team selection and development, allowing players to be assigned to their most valuable role or detecting a particular weakness in his game performance and calculate the best possible training program to improve it.

The data produced by measurements must somehow be easily and safely stored. Modern databases allow storing, retrieving and comparing data in a professional and efficient manner. The whole game can then be reconstructed in 2D/3D format for in-depth staff analysis.

This allows the coach to visualize the movements of his players, linked to the video of the game, enabling a powerful way of evaluating and understanding tactical, technical and physical performance, which in the end leads to further improvement.

DECEMBER 2015 63

EVENTS INNOVATION PERFORMANCE

EVALUATION OF RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND ENGINEERING THROUGH KPIS ANDRADA IULIA GHETE

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K research efforts, and are strongly related to the goals ey Performance Indicators (KPIs) affect decisions,

of the RD&E activity, as they can differ based on the type of project they are used for, e.g. applied projects, research explorations, and so on.

When considering applied projects, the KPIs which relate to market outcomes – like customer satisfaction, for example – are only considered to be relevant if they are adjusted through corporate subsidies. In addition to this, for those programs that nurture technological competencies, regular KPIs should be moderated with “effort” KPIs. Hence, in order to achieve good results, one should balance market-outcome KPIs with those that measure research effort more directly.

Research, Development and Engineering (RD&E) KPIs represent important building blocks for a company’s success, due to multiple reasons such as: Documentation of the RD&E value and justification of investments; Evaluation of people, objectives and programs for ensuring proper resource allocation; Behavioral influence.

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When RD&E staff is being evaluated according to specific KPIs, they take decisions or change their behavior in order to improve performance results. It is very important to choose the right KPIs for evaluating performance, as wrong KPIs can be counterproductive.

Furthermore, your time frame must be scheduled clearly, so that long-term goals do not collide with and/ or collapse over short-term ones.

Moreover, managers and researchers have stated that in order to succeed, the RD&E department should be more customer-driven. Therefore, it is recommended to use KPIs which measure “outcomes” and relate to incremental profit, sales or customer satisfaction.

In addition, managers should ensure a proper balance between the scientific, engineering and processing efforts and also among “efforts” and “outcomes”. “Effort” KPIs can be related to publications and patents; as such, in order for companies to increase the relevancy of their performance results we recommend using a combination of “effort” KPIs. Consequently, the best performance management system in RD&E uses a synthesis of “effort” and outcome KPIs. Moreover, it guides the RD&E actors to spend their resources wisely on both internal ideas and external explorations.

WHAT DO A VIDEO GAME AND AN MBA PROFESSOR HAVE IN COMMON? DIANA ZARNESCU

A teaching experience designed a business

n MBA professor with over 30 years of

strategy video game. Students playing it for 9 hours scored almost the same performance results as students who underwent 9 hours of classroom activities.

The online environment is spreading its influence further and further into areas which were previously believed to be unsuitable for the virtual sector. In education, for example, a computer can replace many elements and tools, but can it also successfully replace the wise guidance of a teacher? However, time and performance requirements turn such environments into fertile grounds for the assimilation of internet-based teaching tools with conventional educational processes.

And so it got to the point that the question is no longer that of switching to the online, but of how to do it in the proper manner?

By adding knowledge, skills and a bucketful of creativity, John Beck, Ph. D. Professor at the Hult International Business School with over 30 year of teaching experience behind him, designed a video game entitled “One Day” that teaches the same business strategies as a real, flesh and blood professor.

Preliminary results The game has been tested on a group of 41 students and, surprisingly enough, the scores received by students following traditional teaching methods were the same, more or less, with the results obtained by students who played the video game.

More specifically, the test was fitted with 3 sections: a multiple choice exercise, an interview and a written case study.

Traditional students failed to score better at the multiple choice exercise, as gamers took the lead and held their position throughout the interview

section too, when both groups averaged the same results. However, upon reaching the case study, traditional students took the lead again.

to replicate a classroom experience. No one is really developing a new pedagogy that wouldn’t be possible in the classroom.”

In numbers, Beck reported in his article, The videogame that teaches business strategy better than professors, that “average test scores rose from 47% to 77%” and “not only did the game teach students as effectively as a real-life professor, it also engaged them.”

Thus, students (67%) admitted that they would definitely attend a school which offered this type of learning, while another 76% would love working for a company which provided training based on the same technology.

The structure followed by the game is roughly based on the course that Joh Beck, as an active professor, taught at Hult Business School.

Overall, it’s quite surprising how the first version of a strategy game can prove to be as useful and thorough as a complete MBA course, taught in one of the highest ranking business schools in the world.

So what does the game do?

The project is entitled “One Day” and it represents Hult School’s first shot ever at online education. Needless to say that for a first go, this project proved not only innovative and creative, but also very fruitful.

The reason why this method turned such good results is, as Stephen Hodges, Hult President, disclosed for Bloomber Business, “Online programs seem to be either outdated or trying

Primarily, the game imagines a business scenario in an airport where strategic decisions have to be taken according to the given reports, data and interactions with different characters. As a side note, one must know that all these factors are liable to change as the player’s strategy alters.

Consequences and future actions Teachers will not be replaced by technology, or not in the immediate future, at least. But, as Beck also underlines, just because nowadays technology can be programmed to achieve in 6 months what a human learns to do in, let’s say, 30 years, is no reason to be apprehensive.

These types of resources must be exploited to our own benefit. In this case, teachers can rely on technological advances to teach students the basics, while they can focus more and more on truly significant and useful aspects of education, such as real life situations, demonstrations etc.

In conclusion, what made this online educational experience better than others alike is that it didn’t try to mimic a classroom environment or anything else that can be done within. It’s among the few official tools which actually leverage on their uniqueness and overcome any conventional teaching techniques and mechanisms.

But overall, what truly sets the One Day game apart is its end-user result: almost the same as the results of an MBA teacher with 30 years of teaching experience.

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PERFORMANCE EVENTS IMPROVEMENT

LEADERS, LIFE-CYCLES AND PERFORMANCE ANDREI COSTEA

W results,

hen it comes to achieving the best we often strive to perform with utmost efficiency. As such, for many individuals, these two concepts are interchangeable. But on whose shoulders does the burden of performance and efficiency rest? On the employee’s or on the manager’s?

For quite some time, the general solution was to make it an even relationship, in which both of the aforementioned parties split the task. But in the eyes of a few, leaders tend to take the lion’s share, due to their enhanced influence over the life cycles of a company. This should not be taken as an affront by the former; employees are a big part of the whole, but we mustn’t turn a blind eye to the effort of the manager, administrator, director and so forth. This was especially emphasized in Lawrence M. Miller’s 1989 work, From Barbarians to Bureaucrats, and mentioned in Richard L. Daft’s 1992 piece, Organizational Theory

66 DECEMBER 2015

and Design. Both of these books explore the organizational life cycles of various companies, detailing on how to deal with the intricacies of each in part, in order to obtain maximum performance. Most often than not, a company goes through the same steps – birth, youth, midlife, maturity and, in some unfortunate cases, decline.

In Miller’s opinion, each step is led by a different leader, with his own mindset.

At birth, the company is managed by a Prophet, who is a visionary. For him, performance means simply getting started as soon as possible.

When it reaches its youth, Barbarians, Builders and Explorers take hold, craving for new ideas, new markets. Profits arise and focus shifts less on revving the engine and more on how it performs.

Performance here equals planning and building a clear structure.

Upon hitting midlife, these aforementioned types converge as one – the Administrator, whose focus is on maximizing performance and efficiency via fact-based research and in-depth market studies, making full use of profit.

As it matures, the company tends to acquire more and more physical, financial and social capital, paving the way for the Bureaucrat. When we speak of performance in this case, we mean an even greater focus on efficiency and costcutting, a bit less on clients, new products or markets and a somewhat overly organized structure rears its head.

Miller also mentions two other types of leaders, one which has nothing to do with performance (the Aristocrat) and one which is the ideal type (the Synergist), balancing social, economic and physical performance/ output. A brief description of the latter

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

45%

ensues below, as the former has no relevance to this topic.

The Synergist is what Miller sees as being the ideal type of leader. He is “a leader who has escaped his or her own conditioned tendencies toward one style and incorporated, appreciated and unified each of the styles of leadership on the life-cycle curve.” He is described as having great spirit, specialized competence, a clear purpose, creativity, being an efficient administrator and understanding basic concepts such as planned urgency, making on-the-spot decisions, leading through unity and diversity (of people and ideas) and responding to challenges with appropriate answers.

Daft offers us a similar life-cycle curve, with companies going from birth, to youth, midlife and maturity. Size changes, going from small to medium, large and very large; it passes from a non-bureaucratic stage to a heavily bureaucratic one, as time goes by; division of labor becomes more and more structured, centralization as well – from a one-person rule to a top-heavy management.

Formalization and administrative intensity go hand in hand: the greater the company, the more formal its administration becomes.

Internal systems of budget planning and control and HR coordination teams spawn, trying to counter and break down the massive administrative behemoth which has taken residence in the company.

These are the traits which are required of company leaders in order to ensure maximum business performance and it is a very compelling argument for success.

Although different from Miller’s approach,

Now, one can infer from the aforementioned aspects that leadership and an astute understanding of organizational lifecycles make up a solid combination for performance management. As mentioned

earlier, employees are the heart, veins and arteries of the company; they power it through the years and any hardships. At the same time, leaders are the central nervous system; without a clear comprehension of what they are supposed to achieve and what effects their decisions are enacting on the company’s well-being, the fruits of performance will not be reaped.

Performance management is a much more complex topic than most people give it credit for, and more often than not, most of it has to do with decisions undertaken by managers, directors etc. Raising or cutting salaries, expanding its customer base, reaching out for new products, markets or alliances – these all stem from leadership.

If it does not have a clear understanding of its goal, objectives, identity and standing, the company will run with its blinders on and performance – no matter how great the effort, will still elude it.

DECEMBER 2015 67

EVENTS RISK MANAGEMENT

PRISONS The risk management experts DIANA ZARNESCU

W systems,

hen setting up risk management managers often regard models provided by other organizations, for best practice examples. However, risk management is sensitive to its surrounding environment. What works for one organization, might not function just as well for another, of a different nature.

Fortunately though, there is one type of organization that will always place risk management above other departments, no matter the variations in its nature, surroundings or other variables: these are penal institutions, or prisons.

Whether a prison achieves its mission successfully, or fails to do so, is heavily dependent on how it manages risk. Prisons

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are regarded as providers of security, both for the outside environment (which is little or not at all related to the prison itself), but also to its inhabitants (staff and inmates), whose safety depends on the programs and measures the organization implements.

Moreover, its mission does not end once an inmate returns to society, as prisons also need to control the risk of criminal recidivists through education, professional trainings and consultations, in addition to continuous supervision. For all of these reasons, and more, prisons become the organization to look at, when designing a risk management system. Such a system does not rely on building a strategy to avoid risk, but rather on gaining control over the interplay between progress, opportunity and risk.

Creating a program designed to manage risk represents the first systematic and organized approach to taking control of something that is, by its nature, unpredictable, uncontrollable and, often enough, unknown. Such a program can provide premature signals of warning, in case any dangers lurk around the organization or, on a more positive spectrum, it can draw attention to the right moment to seize an opportunity for change and development, which are both considered as risks themselves.

When situations arise and organization, prisons in this case, do not control them, the outcomes might affect the achievement of their mission, alongside putting a toll on their top resources. The means which support jails consist in human and financial resources, property, partners and reputation, as the

RISK MANAGEMENT

US Department of Justice mentions, in its Managing risk in jails report.

they apply and implement within, can also be integrated in unrelated companies.

source containing further details on what may the triggering factors.

Key resources and risk management

Risk management issues and strategies

In order to preserve and enhance their key resources, high-performing correction facilities follow a risk management system which signals when it becomes high-time to take a risk. Thus, as the US Department of Justice explains, prisons follow a set of risk management guidelines for each established resource:

Every organization is split into several functional areas or departments, for better administrative management. And so are jails.

Thus, according to the Federal performancebased detention standards, each functional area, belonging to a prison facility, has assigned to it goals, possible risk events, consequences, triggering factors, and strategies which address effects caused by risks.

Risk control strategies: Probably the most important aspect of a risk management plan, this section entails the actions needed in order to maintain and increase the safety degree of the facility. The strategies, however, are linked to the potential risks mentioned.

Some of the strategies, in this case, are keeping the facility clean, free of vermin, in good repair, managing hazardous materials, and develop emergency plans.

Property: by making plans in advance, an organization rests assured that at least their basic operations can still be carried on. They’ve also taken measures to reduce the impact natural calamities, such as earthquakes or floods, might have on their assets, and the risk of being vandalized by increasing the lighting. Duplicates of crucial documents prevent information loss; Human resources: safety training ensure that both inmates and personnel know how to prevent or control accidents, injuries and other forms of confrontation; Financial resources: risk management here basically focuses on making sure that the organization is eligible for funding, in the eventuality that it will lose its income sources; Partners: cooperation with other organizations that follow a similar agenda to theirs can lead to mutual improvement solutions; Reputation: by training more staff to represent the organization, and not just the spokesperson, the prison’s public image will have less to suffer.

As it is clearly visible by glancing over these risk management strategies employed by jails, such facilities are little or no different from other organizations. As such, what

The procedure is not meant to be an exhaustive list of possible risks for jails, but rather an instrument which reveals the link between the organization’s mission, goals and risk management.

To better illustrate the link and the procedure, the functional area of Safety is detailed below, with risks and strategies included, as noted in the Federal performance-based detention standards report: Functional area 1: Safety Goal: provide a safe work environment for jail staff, volunteers, contractors, and inmates.

Thus, with enough consistency and dedication, these simple enumerations of factors transform into a risk management program. The benefits of such a plan are, but not limited to, the following: It demonstrates top management’s support for risk management; It ensures that the organization holds a systematic and functional strategy to respond to certain events, which may be potentially perilous; Assigns responsibility and accountability; Promotes a risk management culture;

Risk events: accidents with human damages, accidents with property damages, illnesses, breeches in the jail’s legal duty to provide care and protection to inmates.

Enhances budgeting prioritization;

Consequences of risk events: injury, illnesses, death, health care expenses, damage to property, loss of employees, lawsuits, expenses for repairs, unavailability of damaged assets, revenue loss, reputation loss.

Provides a reference source for personnel.

Sources of risk: Here, the report details each source, such as chemicals, explosions, biological hazards and so forth, each

By measuring goals and KPIs, the success of such efforts can be demonstrated;

It is not only recommended, but it is also highly important that, when designing a risk management plan, an organization should not be blindfolded to other organizations’ practices in this segment. As such, jails are the best benchmarking tools because for this type of institution, risk management is actually a day’s worth of work.

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ASK THE EXPERTS

ASK THE EXPERTS

WHICH DATA MATTERS THE MOST? CRISTINA TARÂTA, HEAD OF RESEARCH

T important factor, shaping societies and economies he evolution of technology has always been an

alike. If a few decades ago, managers were forced to trust their instincts and experience when creating customer profiles, nowadays access to that type of data can be attained instantly with the right technology.

each company, but there are several approaches that proved to be effective in practice, by feeding the right information for decision-making:

1.

Data that matters for your business should be reflected in a performance scorecard through KPIs. An annual strategic planning process should ensure not only that your business objectives are achievable and relevant, but it should also set in place the KPIs used to effectively monitor them. Given the tight relationship between objectives and KPIs, it is important to ensure that strategic objectives are based on true value drivers for your business.

2.

Keep the strategic scorecard focused on the big picture – try to cover all the important aspects in the Balanced Scorecard (financial, customer, internal processes and people), but limit the number of KPIs.

3.

“Key” from Key Performance Indicators is not defined by how complicated the calculation formula is or whether it measures an outcome instead of a process. “Key” refers to being relevant to the objective measured, so that it offers managers all the information they require in order to make informed and correct decisions.

4.

All other metrics that may be important can be monitored in a dashboard. They can provide further details on the business’s environment.

5.

As the business evolves, KPIs should as well. Even if some strategic objectives may stay the same for extended periods of times, the way they are measured can change.

Today, the challenges lies not in getting information about your business’s overall performance, but in spotting what matters the most in an ocean of data!

In 2012, a research study initiated by The Economist Intelligence Unit indicated that 40% of executives were complaining about having too much data and the difficulties this generated in regards to decision-making and planning.

The massive amount of information you are able to obtain today can help professionals spot opportunities or threats beforehand and take preemptive actions, or they can get lost in details and lose the big picture altogether.

In this great expanse of data, popular management tools that keep executives focused on the company’s strategy and development are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The performance scorecard enables policy formulation and keeps the board of directors with the eyes on the prize – further improving their company.

However, organizations worldwide – regardless of their business sector, have felt at a certain moment in time that their current KPIs have lost any intrinsic essence they had and are no longer “key”.

Selecting the right KPIs from a vast amount of business metrics is quite the task and no off-theshelf list of KPIs for your industry will fix this issue.

There is no standard answer in terms of which data is important for

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Nowadays, companies are able to measure the impact of their products and services on customer experience through # Customers satisfaction index or through % Net Promoter Score. A logistics division could also measure the effectiveness of delivery from a qualitative perspective % Orders delivered without damaged products or from a timeliness perspective % On-time delivery.

No matter the method, one always has to keep in mind this piece of information: if you want to improve something, such as a business or company, you must first know how to accurately and properly measure it!

LIFESTYLE

JOHN R. POTTER

LIFESTYLE

UNLOCKING HUMAN PERFORMANCE A leadership challenge

What we need to do is use the Performance Management process as a way of engaging staff and helping them develop a high level of intrinsic or internal motivation.

DECEMBER 2015

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E challenging issue for many managers. In ffective Performance Management is a

an increasingly competitive world, it is vital that employees work effectively and contribute to the organisation’s strategic thrust. At the same time, we have to recognise that many employees become anxious when receiving feedback and see Performance Management as something of a threat. What we need to do is use the Performance Management process as a way of engaging staff and helping them develop a high level of intrinsic or internal motivation, rather than focusing on external motivations for misstep correction.

We used to think motivation was about external actions undertaken by the manager – the so called ‘carrot and stick’ approach. The problem with this approach is that it tends to be short termed. It does not push the right buttons for intrinsic or internal motivation.

One approach that moved on from the ‘carrot and stick’ model was the One Minute Manager idea, put forward in the last century by Ken Blanchard. In some ways, this was an early approach to performance management by setting clear goals with the employee, and then focusing on catching the person performing well and giving positive feedback. When less than positive performance was displayed, the manager went straight to the staff member and talked about how bad that underwhelming performance made him, or her feel. This negative feedback was then balanced by specific, on-point positive feedback so that the employee left the discussion feeling better about themselves and keen on doing better in the future. This was very much a verbal, interactive process with generally little formal written recording.

What seems to have happened in many organisations in recent years is that the focus on Performance Management has become a sometimes complex administrative process, which neither manager nor employee really

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embraces. Under pressure from Human Resources, the manager may complete the documentation in a hurry without taking the opportunity to develop an interactive coaching or mentoring process with the respective employee.

Performance Management should promote employee engagement, and as such that process needs a degree of enablement and empowerment to ensure that members of staff act with discretionary effort and go the extra mile. However, it is important that the employee is confident and trusts in the fact that their contribution is going to add value to the organisation. Thus, Performance Management should focus on developing intrinsic motivation within the employee, so as to guide them on a personal and professional development path. You cannot divorce Performance Management from coaching and inspiring employees. It should not be reduced to box ticking or a simple rating process.

So how do we need to act as managers if we are to use a Performance Management process to create good results?

What we need to do is to remove fear from the process. What we have learned from neuroscience in the recent years is that people who feel good about themselves and positive about their work tend to produce good results.

Whilst this may seem like a blinding glimpse of the obvious, neuroscience has shown that our brains operate more effectively when we are in a positive, threat-free state, than when we feel pressured and even under threat in our job/role. Managers can often put employees into a negative, threatened state during Performance Management interviews if they do not understand the impact of a meeting’s course on a staff member’s psyche.

What we now know from neuroscience is that there are some clearly-defined, unconsciously perceived threats which can trigger anxious reactions during performance interviews. One of these is status. If the employee feels that the manager is being critical of their ability, this will unconsciously have a detrimental impact on his/her emotional status.

Uncertainty about goals and being overcontrolled also produces a negative effect. If the interview contains a degree of hostility about it, this will cause the employee to feel that they have not been treated fairly. So the recipe for effective handling of performance management interviews is clear: Raise the person’s self-esteem and the idea that they are making a valuable contribution to the organisation.

Set clear goals, targets and objectives with the employee so they feel a sense of responsibility to perform Create the notion that the person is in charge of their work and that they have a degree of autonomy Be friendly and empathetic during the meeting, in order to develop a positive working relationship Treat all employees fairly, both the high performers and the less-than-high performers.

David Rock, of the Neuroscience Institute, has labelled this approach SCARF and it is a powerful approach for enabling employees to feel motivated and in turn deliver focused performance.

LIFESTYLE

An early approach to human performance in psychology was that of the YerkesDodson inverted U curve, which shows how performance varies with one’s level of arousal or, more simply put, pressure.

If a person feels under too little pressure and their level of arousal is low, they will be lacking in internal motivation and display signs of boredom and even ‘rustout’. If under too much pressure with an excessive level of arousal, they may become unfocused, make mistakes and deliver unpredictably poor performance levels and may even suffer from ‘burn out’.

Somewhere in the middle is an optimum level of pressure, which results in peak performance and also a state of motivated well-being, which the manager should be aiming to harness in the employee. In the worlds of sports and performing arts, this process is sometimes developed to such an extent that the individual enters what has been called a ‘flow’ state, where it seems they simply cannot fail at whatever they attempt.

We all experience ‘flow’ states at times and the challenge is finding out how to spend more time in this highly rewarding state.

So we really have to look at performance management in terms of how it can contribute to developing intrinsic motivation in the employee. In a review of approaches to motivation during the past century, Daniel Pink has suggested that the key drivers of internally-driven motivation are a sense of purpose, development of mastery of the work and a sense of autonomy. These three drivers are particularly visible in selfemployed people and entrepreneurs. We need to incorporate them into an employee’s mind set if we are to enable our staff members to act like owners.

What the effective manager and leader needs to do is move Performance Management towards more of a Performance Leadership approach by unlocking the potential of the employee rather than over-controlling their behaviour. Criticism needs to be replaced by balanced feedback acknowledgement when the employee has performed well. Managing needs to be enhanced towards more of a leadership process through coaching, mentoring and developing effective working relationships with the employee.

Many professional management development programmes, including MBAs, focus on task management skills rather than human interactive skills. The present author’s substantial experience in delivering management and leadership development programmes both in the university setting and the commercial world has led to his creation of his new book, ”Punch Above Your Weight”, which is a useful template for developing these often missing elements of management education. The book covers a range of vital issues including an understanding of the nature of success, selfawareness and creating a sense of purpose.

A goal-setting process, which inspires people, is outlined together with engagement skills.

Being influential, selling ideas and negotiation skills are also featured together, with a concise summary of some of the basics of effective leadership. The book then moves on to develop strategic thinking and how to acclimate peak performance with work life balance. These are all highly relevant if Performance Management is truly to become Performance Leadership.

This book can provide a common approach and language to developing human performance throughout an organisation and is being used by a number of organisations to create a culture shift, which enables the company to handle the challenges of tomorrow effectively.

Punch Above Your Weight is published by Thorogood of London.

The ISBN ISBN1854188658 The author JohnPotterisanexperiencedmanagement and leadership development practitioner with a background in science, technology and psychology. He works around the globe and has held three professorial positions during his career. Punch Above Your Weight is his latest book which is the basis for a corporate mentoring programme to be launched in the near future.

For more details of this please email jpglobal@btconnect.com. His website is www.johnpotterglobal.com

DECEMBER 2015 73

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WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPIER Buying or doing?

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I may have an influence over your state of t’s payday. The decisions you make today

happiness, as quite a few studies have shown.

Buying experiences and making memories – such as going on a trip, make you happier than buying material possessions, despite many people frequently considering the latter of a greater value. Hence, you might have been looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

Material vs. experiential purchases – the beginnings 74 DECEMBER 2015

The distinction between material and experiential purchases was first introduced in 2003 by Leaf Van Boven (University of Colorado at Boulder) and Thomas Gilovich (Cornell University). If material purchases can be defined as “spending money with the primary intention of acquiring a material possession – a tangible object that you obtain and keep in your possession”, experiential purchases represent “spending money with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience — an event or series of events that you personally encounter or

live through.” However, the real distinction comes not from the action itself, but from the feeling of satisfaction it provides.

According to their study, “To Do or to Have?

That Is the Question”, 97 students from the University of British Columbia were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 9, how happy they were purchasing experiences or material possessions worth more than $100. Several weeks after, some 42 out of the 97 undergraduates were asked to rate the extent to which those events were experiential or material.

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As a result, participants indicated that, compared to material purchases, experiential purchases “made them happier, contributed more to their happiness in life and represented money better spent”, as Van Boven and Gilovich mentioned.

Why are experiences more satisfying than material possessions?

Once the distinction had been established, in 2010, Thomas Gilovich, alongside Travis J. Carter (Cornell University) returned to the matter at hand and published “The Relative Relativity of Material and Experiential Purchases”, presenting the results of a study that meant to unravel the reasons why experiential purchases are more satisfying for humans. In other words, why the hedonic value generated by purchasing experiences is greater than the hedonic value of buying material assets.

Some of the reasons identified by the two researchers are: Experiences are harder to retrospectively than possessions – therefore, you have little room for regret once the decision is made. Imagine you bought a phone and it becomes outdated the

compare

next month since a new generation is launched; or you see a similar, yet cheaper one, and as a result you feel less satisfied about the purchase you made; Comparisons between experiences have less hedonic impact than analogous comparisons between possessions; ergo, discovering there is a better location for a vacation than the one you just chose is not as troubling as the aforementioned case; Experiences become memories, therefore becoming a part of the self which is much more difficult to lose or change than their material counterparts.

In their 2010 study, the two researchers proved that making decisions regarding the purchase of a product is more troublesome than making decisions regarding experiences. 142 participants were surveyed on this matter and, as predicted, participants which were materiallyconditioned reported that their purchases had been more difficult than the other

ones. Moreover, participants’ difficulty in deciding what they wanted impacted their current feelings about the purchase: the former expressed more immediate concern about their choice than the latter.

Where do we stand in the happiness pursuit?

Although the fact that we live in a consumerist society is undeniable, the places where we should be looking for happiness can be and should be questioned.

The greater hedonic value that people acquire from experiential purchases is reflected in the common regrets about the two types of purchases. Regrets can be categorized by action and inaction – in other words you can regret either buying something or not buying it. As Rosenzweig and Gilovich discovered, in 2012, people tend to have more regrets of inaction for experiences than for material purchases.

So, on your next payday, will you stay in line to purchase the new generation smartphone, the clothes you think you need more than anything or that new LCD, or will you choose to spend your money on experiences – aspects that enhance your life which will become invaluable memories? It’s all a matter of choice.

LIFESTYLE

WHY AND HOW YOU SHOULD FIRST INVEST IN YOURSELF ELENA CHITOIU

M generate

ost people want their business to revenue and that should preferably happen as soon as possible.

But how many people would invest in themselves, first and foremost?

Nowadays, competition is the name of the game, as the marketplace for some companies is represented by the entire globe. What are the secrets held by successful businesses?

How can you reach the highest number of costumers? How can you improve your own business? The answer is quite simple, by starting small – with you, for example.

What was the last thing you actually did for yourself in the last few weeks? Have you thought about that? If you have found three 76 DECEMBER 2015

things you did for your self-improvement in the last two weeks, you are free to leave this article aside and continue doing what you were doing before starting to read it.

Improving yourself can bring loads of advantages; it will help you feel more confident and implicitly, happier. Apparently, self-confidence will come with an extra bonus called happiness. This can be linked to continuous learning – a person having a greater amount of knowledge is considered smarter by others, hence an increase in confidence is registered. Moreover, a research conducted by the University of Melbourne has shown that highly confident employees are more likely to be promoted than employees with a low confidence level.

Secondly, improving yourself will help with setting a good example for the others – your colleagues, employees and family. Living in an environment and influencing it positively sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? And it can produce increased results in your personal and professional life, too.

As a team leader, this is a good way of leading by example – your employees will follow you happily if you are a good leader. If you want to see better things happening around you, you have to better yourself.

Whether you are wondering how you can make self-investments or where you should start with these improvements, try starting out with a few small steps, like the following:

LIFESTYLE

1. Develop your skills

3. Take care of your body

4. Explore creativity

Highly-skilled individuals are essential to companies and employers. The first thing an interviewer wants to know about you is what you can do practically. Nowadays, there are plenty of tools and techniques one can use for improving their skills – language learning (Duolingo), brain training (Elevate), coding language (Codecademy), and more – and the only effort required is doing some research and scheduling a learning plan.

Your health is as important as your mind and this typically becomes noticeable when an illness knocks on your door. Not being strong enough in order to follow your dreams is indeed a burden. If you take care of your body accordingly, certain discomforts might be avoided; it is recommended that you exercise a moderate amount of physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week, or focus on a more intensive workout program that could last up to 75 minutes per week.

A good way of improving one’s self is by developing, enhancing and practicing any type of creative endeavor. One useful approach in doing so is learning new languages. You might have learned a foreign language in childhood that you haven’t been practicing for a long period and as such, re-studying it now might feel easier and yield better results. In addition, your self-esteem and confidence will receive a boost, due to the above-mentioned reasons.

Travel, discover, write, create something palpable – these are some simple examples of activities you can do in order to explore your creativity and also get the chance to know yourself better.

Education is paramount to skills development, since it is the main pillar of the entire construction; it has to be continuous, according to the LLL (Long Life Learning) concept. One way of educating yourself is through training activities – self-trainings or trainings held by other specialized companies – which are quite advantageous, given the know-how exchange one experiences through them.

On the plus side, there is a great emphasis on knowledge-based management; great companies are searching for people who have the necessary ‘know-how’. Knowledge is power – especially in today’s economy, when companies are looking for that precious element, called intellectual capital.

Information can be found everywhere and now you can always receive a constant inflow of novelties and developments from around the world. On the downside however, it seems that many people would rather procrastinate than ameliorate. Unfortunately, according to Officetime.net, only 1 out of 10 people avoids procrastination and is indeed very proactive.

Nutrition is also important for your body, as you have to pay attention to the products you buy and your eating habits, which might bring up certain health problems when overindulging or pursuing any other bad eating habits. Another specific activity you can treat your body with is relaxation – whenever you feel your body needs it, take a step back, relax and enjoy a few peaceful moments with your family, friends or even by yourself.

Improving one’s self is essential for raising your confidence, happiness, and overall self-satisfaction levels. Improvements in the people around you and the environment you live in can happen if you start with yourself. In order to get better, be better.

DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS

TREAT YOUR MIND

TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY

EXPLORE CREATIVITY

2. Treat your mind Exercise your mind and improve your intellectual skills. Reading is one activity that has a great, positive impact on your brain, as well as your memory. Statistics have shown that reading reduces one’s stress level by 68% and the risk of dementia by 35%. This activity is also important for obtaining an increase in self-confidence and motivation – as knowledge can be acquired from books and online sources such as Reading Agency.

In addition, you can also feed your mind with cultural exploration – discover other people’s way of living, working and relaxing. This will not only increase your overall knowledge, but will also make you become more open-minded.

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LIFESTYLE

THE KPI DICTIONARY 路 REFERENCE COLLECTION OF BOOKS

Find the most suitable KPIs to measure your business success!

Examples of documented Key Performance Indicator Definitions for an in depth view on Performance Measurement Newly released publications: 14 Functional Area KPI Dictionaries 18 Industry KPI Dictionaries

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78 DECEMBER 2015

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2013 - 2015 TOP KPIS REPORTS Reports by Functional Area Top 25 Accounting KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Accounts Payable and Receivable KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Administration / Office Support KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Advertising KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Application Development KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Asset Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Compensation and Benefits KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Compliance and Audit Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Contract Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Corporate Travel KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 CSR KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Customer Service KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Data Center KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 eCommerce KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Efficiency and Effectiveness KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Email Marketing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Enterprise Architecture KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Environmental Care KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Facilities Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Finance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Forecasts & Valuation KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Governance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 HSSE KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Human Resources KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Information Technology KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Innovation KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Inventory Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 IT Security KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Knowledge Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Legal Services KPIs of 2013-2015

Top 25 Liquidity KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Logistics / Distribution KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Maintenance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Marketing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Network Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Online Advertising KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Online Publishing - Weblogs KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Portfolio Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Procurement / Purchasing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Production KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Profitability KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Project Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Public Relations KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Quality Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 R&D KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Recruitment KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Retention KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Risk Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sales KPIs of 2013-2015* Top 25 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Service Delivery KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Service Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Supply Chain Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Supply Chain*, Procurement, Distribution KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Talent Development KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Web Analytics KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Workforce KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Working Environment KPIs of 2013-2015

Reports by Industry Top 25 Academic Education KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Accounting Services KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Airlines KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Airports KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Banking and Credit KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Broadcasting (TV and Radio) KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Business Consulting KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Call Center KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Civil Engineering KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Coaching / Training KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Coal and Minerals Mining KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Colleges and Universities KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Construction of Buildings KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Crops KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Customs KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Electricity KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Emergency Response / Ambulance Services KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Engineering KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Event Production and Promotion KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Film and Music KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Forestry and Logging KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Healthcare KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Hospitals KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Hotel KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Insurance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Investments KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Land Transport (Road & Rail) KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Legal Practice KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Libraries and Archives KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Livestock, Hunting and Fishing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Local Government KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Local Public Transport KPIs of 2013-2015

Top 25 Medical Laboratory KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Medical Practice KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Mortgages KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Museums KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Natural Gas KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 NGO KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Oil and Gas KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Pension Funds KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Ports KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Postal and Courier Services KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Preventive Healthcare KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Primary and Secondary Schools / K-12 KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Property Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Publishing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Railways KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Real Estate Development KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Real Estate Transactions KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Recruitment / Employment Activities KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Restaurant KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Retail KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Roads KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Shipping KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Social Media KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sport Club Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sport Event Organisation KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 State Government KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sustainability KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Telecommunications KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Tour Operator KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Training and Other Education KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Travel Agency KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Water and Sewage KPIs of 2013-2015

DECEMBER 2015 79

HARDWARE REVIEW

HARDWARE

FORM 1

The Adidas Smart Ball

When 3D printing was first introduced, everyone was taken aback by the endless possiblities it offered. First off, medicine was completely revolutionized; the process allowed specialists to further develop opportunities for transplants and surgical interventions which were deemed impossible only a few years ago. Now, 3D printing has found its way into another area of expertise – that of design.

Measurement in sports is the Pandora’s box of every competition. Good measurement differentiates between the first place and the rest. As such, every measurement fallacy can trigger undeserved failures, scandals or undeserved merits.

From drawing a line on the ground to mark a crossing line, to the more advanced means of augmented reality, measurement has always been taken seriously in sports as it ultimately separates the winner from the second best.

money-friendly 3D printing

FORM 1 is a 3D printing apparatus made by a team based in Boston, Montreal and London. They decided that current printers were far too expensive for any designer to even glimpse at. Thus, they came up with their own stereolithography printer, which can produce high resolution parts, is intuitive and simple to use and vastly accurate.

FORM 1 is the tool needed to bring performance in the design game. Whether you are an engineer or a freelancer, you will rejoice in working with this marvelous invention. Typical lowend 3D printers use extruded plastic (FDM), which cannot yield truly high resolution results. SL on the other hand, can. And it is generally extremely expensive, which is why Formland’s efforts (the team behind FORM 1) are remarkable.

It can precisely print layers as thin as 25 microns (0.001 in) with features as small as 300 microns (0.012 in) in a build volume of 125 x 125 x 165 mm (4.9 x 4.9 x 6.5 in).

Moreover, it has the capability of importing STL models from any 3D CAD package; what’s more so, given the capability of generating thin, breakable support structures, this allows a user to print whatever their project requires with minimum disposability efforts. Time, money and material-efficient – those are the trademarks of FORM 1.

With thousands of lines of code already built-in, you have a plethora of standard models from which to choose, or on which to build on. This tool promises to revolutionize design on a mass scale, combining performance with efficiency and accuracy.

80 DECEMBER 2015

when accuracy wins the gold medal

Every organization that manufactures sporting goods therefore aims to provide its clients with products that guarantee the highest levels of accuracy and therefore, performance. Recent trends have seen technology embedded not only within gadgets such as Smart Watches, but also in sportswear. When it comes to innovative sports gadget manufacturers, eyes generally turn towards the big league players.

Adidas prides itself on the app-based Smart Ball, which registers multiple data upon every ball kick, rendering all of these in graphical representations displayed on a smartphone screen. The app linked to the Smart Ball is micoach, and it basically presents a player’s raw performance data, comparing it against existing standards in football/soccer. The ball’s integrated sensor allows the tracking and measurement of strikes, showing which foot was used and the flight path, speed and spin of the ball. Based on this data, the app then analyzes the kicker’s skill level and instantly displays the registered information, while also recommending certain practices for improvement.

Some examples would be the placement of the ball on the field, in relation to the gate, the optimal fight path, kick force and spin the ball must take in flight; it even shows which bone of the foot is the most suitable for attaining the desired results. Reviews written by Smart Ball users commend the accuracy of the ball’s key features, recognizing its merits in upgrading a player’s game.

Due to its accurate measurements, the Adidas Smart Ball leaves its competitors trailing.

HARDWARE

IKEA

a kitchen for our future selves Think of how life will be for us, 10 years from now. Think of our homes and how these will adapt to living in 2025. Imagine the most futuristic model possible. Now incorporate practicality into it.

Practicality is one feature of IKEA’s products, besides pricing and quality, which made the Swiss housing goods retailer so sought after and famous worldwide.

And with big fame, comes big responsibility, but also more possibilities to actually change the normal pace of things. Thus we present you IKEA’s concept for a future kitchen, in the year 2025. The model is based chiefly on practicality and the needs of our future selves.

First off, IKEA took into consideration spatial limitations. In the current rhythm of development, the human race will predominantly occupy smaller places, mostly within urban settlements. Therefore, with our homes possibly decreasing in size and our needs surely increasing, the company holds technology as the ultimate answer to satisfying the latter and solving the former.

Other factors incorporated in IKEA’s “The World in 2025” vision refer to: Resources such as water, energy and food, which will steadily become more valuable and, inherently, more expensive; Dietary options will also revolve more around protein intake than meat/dairy/ vegetable type;

Jobs will be mostly autochthonous as technological advancements will allow geographically-dispersed teams from various industries to work in this manner; On the same terms, computers will be incorporated in almost anything you can possibly imagine; One last great assumption refers to Eastern cultures which, considering their high growth rates, will be integrated into Western cultures. Already there is a migration of cultural elements going from Eastern nations like Japan and China to Western nations, via social media mostly.

IKEA then proceeded to build their future kitchen on these perspectives. The end-result revealed a product which is deceivingly uncomplicated and simple: the room is small, the furniture is modestlooking and the number of modules is limited to only a few. However, this modestlooking kitchen has more technology and possibilities incorporated in it than any existing kitchen in 2015.

Storing spaces First off, IKEA is convinced that food and other goods will be delivered to us by means of unmanned vehicles and drones.

Therefore, storing a lot of comestibles and other necessities will become rather obsolete. Hence, there will be no need for large storage spaces but rather smaller, well designed modules, with embedded “casual

technology - unobtrusive, embedded, yet aware.” The pantry is thus incorporated into one module which cools or heats food (according to the need), keeps the easily perishable items at sight while others, such as vegetables, are stored in terracotta boxes, which are naturally cooler spaces.

Separate see-through boxes will maintain the desired temperature for each type of product it stores.

Recycling procedures The next burning issue is recycling.

This is already an increasingly pressing responsibility that we feel today. However, in 2025, there will be no more questions of who is recycling and who is not, because everyone will be engaged in this operation.

In fact, recycling will be taken so seriously that cities will fine those who do not dispose selectively of their trash. It will be the same with not paying your taxes.

Nonetheless, recycling will not be performed in the same manner as we do it nowadays.

The process will significantly improve due to the technology embedded in our future kitchens. Sink waste will undergo a process of selection, namely leftovers will be collected into a puck, from which all water will be extracted. The puck, odorless and small-sized, will then be gathered by the municipality. The resulting extracted water will be directed towards an integrated sewage system that feeds indoor plants.

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HARDWARE

This is the kitchen and life that IKEA envisions for humanity, ten years from now. Small in size? Yes. Practical? Definitely.

Technologically packed? No doubt about it. The only downside is that we still have to wait for it to become reality.

Non-organic waste is also automatically processed. More precisely, cans, bottles, plastics are crushed and modelled into a small-sized object to which a label is added, naming the containing material and possible future uses.

The table of all tables The highlight of IKEA’s entire concept is its dining table. How does it look like? A plain old dinner table that does absolutely nothing to catch your sight.

Does it have any hidden features? Yes, tens.

With one touch on the table surface, the plain wooden kitchen furniture becomes a preparation surface, a heater, a recipe book, a scale, an area where children can play.

You can weigh any product, place ingredients on it and the table will select recipes based on what items you already own, select a timer, add as many pans as you need, set temperatures and timers for each pot or pan, keep your coffee/tea warm and multiple other wonderful functions.

All these features actually incorporate the actions performed by several other kitchen modules and appliances.

Altogether, this kitchen seems almost too far-fetched to become a reality by 2025, but in actuality, the technology behind this table is not that far away. It is already available and quite advanced in some areas of expertise, such as the IT industry’s Augmented Reality gadgets.

These however, need not only to be improved for private use, but also be mass produced and reasonably priced so that they can reach a greater number of potential clients.

Coming back to IKEA’s plan, a camera - along with a projector, placed above the dining table will record, process and project data on the surface of the board. A layer of induction coils creates the network. Brought together, these features allow the recognition and manipulation of any food item, dish, or kitchen utensil placed on the counter’s surface.

This is the kitchen and life that IKEA envisions for humanity, ten years from now.

Small in size? Yes. Practical? Definitely.

Technologically packed? No doubt about it. The only downside is that we still have to wait for it to become reality.

82 DECEMBER 2015

SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE REVIEW

Air Fuel Synthesis

fixing energy supply problems and global warming Air Fuel Synthesis Ltd., from Stockton-on-Tees, a company from Great Britain specializing in fuel conversion, have a daring innovative solution for helping out with worldwide energy supply issues and climate change, all in one package. Their research has focused on finding alternatives to fossil fuels usage, and on trying to offer the best alternative.

And they might just have found it – by converting air and water into fuel. Since August, 2015, they have managed to produce five litres of petrol, with the aim being to start mass production by the end of 2015.

SmartApps

While most companies overpromise but few actually deliver results, this is one of the most performant endeavors industries have witnessed. In just a few months, Air Fuel Synthesis have managed to go from producing a mere 5 litres to quickly building a commercial scale plant, to begin mass production.

Since the advent of mobile apps, everyone has gotten on the hype train and is riding to a new, better, brighter future. From maps to stats, or from scheduling nights out to lights out, there is an app for everything. Now, a group of talented developers are paving the way for an even greater interconnection between items –with a focus on your house, among others. Introducing SmartThings.

Their first target is the motor sports sector, which currently takes quite the toll on our fuel resources and environment. According to a study commisioned by the Formula-E Holding Value Creation & Sustainability report, if the motor sports industry giants would get involved, they could save up to 4 billion barrels of oil and avoid the emission of 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, annually. Recently, the company has had their application approved by the Regional Growth Fund and will build a commercial scale Methanol to Petrol processing plant. This will allow them to produce 1.2 million litres of Bio-fuel annually.

All those futuristic houses we’ve seen in the movies, which were operated at the touch of a button are no longer just dreams. Primarily, it can be configured as a personal performance tool – controlling your air conditioner, thermostats, temperature and humidity sensors, smoke and CO alarms, moisture and flood sensors, lights, fans, heaters, disco balls; even your doors, sprinklers, windows or grills will have the option of being integrated.

Even more stunning is their long-term plan – going global.

Since many faraway locations have large-scale renewable energy deposits, but lack any affordable connections to a power plant, AFS can chip-in and give a helping hand, by building manufacturing plants to produce sustainable liquid fuels.

This is a prime example of how private endeavors and any willing individual can make a difference in the overall picture. This is performance improvement on two levels: first off, by researching a novel conversion model and secondly, by bringing it so close to consumers, so soon. AFS is a noteworthy example of an outstanding player in today’s team effort to combat resource depletion and climate change.

connecting parts, connecting worlds

All that time wasted on double and triple-checking will fade away, giving rise to a more dynamic and efficient household lifestyle. This app will notify you if your pet runs out of your yard, warn you if you have any leaks or directly contact a plumber if it detected one, watch over your valuables cabinets and drawers.

Moreover, it will monitor power outlets and have built-in open/ shut sensors (for doors and whatnot), motion sensors (to detect movement within a room) and presence sensors (to know when people or animals come and go). It can be integrated with almost any control, monitoring and performance checking app and can connect via Ethernet, cellular, Zigbee, Z-wave and Bluetooth.

Furthermore, if you are a developer, good news! SmartThings is an open platform and can be customized and enhanced to your heart’s content. Managing your household has never been more efficient and if wasting time and energy is something you wish to get rid of, SmartThings is the performance and efficiency-maximizing tool for you, allowing you to never be caught off-guard whilst at home.

DECEMBER 2015 83

SOFTWARE

Sutisoft

sutisoft is upgrading and you should too Time and performance management have been made easy with SutiHR, SutiSoft’s modules for business administration.

Now, as the IT sector is developing new and innovative applications and platforms to streamline productivity, so have those in charge of SutiHR. SutiSoft is a leading provider of integrated, cloud-based business productivity platforms for all companies, no matter the size. Among the list of solutions, there are flexible and intuitive solutions for HR, Employee Travel and Expenses, Wireless Spend management, Business data analytics, CRM and many more.

They have recently announced new upgrades to their comprehensive HR management

software. Among the many new additions one can find changes in time off accrual rules, a wider array of candidate approval or rejection options, grievance resolutions and an overall more user-friendly, convenient performance management platform.

Time off accruals will be credited on a particular day during the week;

To expand a bit on this last point, a few details on each new upgrade have been covered as follows:

Managers and administrators can now give employees notable access to the reporting system, so that they can generate custom reports.

Faster grievance resolutions will be readily available since they will now feature the option of including an employee’s reporting authority on the specific form/document;

All of these upgrades are expected to visibly improve performance and efficiency, control costs, save time and aid in making better and accurate venture decisions. Report files, documents, general paperwork will all be streamlined so that business leaders and executives alike can focus more on improving their company than pushing papers.

It will allow managers to duplicate their performance appraisal sheets, standardizing the whole procedure;

PUSH

fitness measurement at its finest Recent years have seen the fitness and sports gadgets market being flooded by a mutitude of devices designed to provide accuracy in measuring physical performance. PUSH is one of these.

PUSH is a fitness performance measurement gadget which analyzes three key aspects – force, power and velocity. Scientists have long said that these metrics represent the pillars on which all training is consolidated 84 DECEMBER 2015

Any new employee requisitions shall have to be prior approved by the requisition owner before being sent for budget approval;

and nowadays, we have developed this gadget to help us out.

Boasting sleek looks and an accurate tracking system which records how your body performs under certain weight conditions, PUSH proceeds to offer insight on load-optimization.

It has fully integrated iPhone and Android support, meaning that you can make your own routines and set them up so PUSH can track your progress every time you work out.

With performance being on everyone’s minds nowadays, this gadget further eases our efforts to improve ourselves, both professionally and personally.

RESOURCES

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3

2

RECOMMENDED

Readings to warm up your winter 5

4

6

1. Punch Above Your Weight!: How to Succeed at Whatever You Want to Do

2. How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business

This new title of the renowned entrepreneurial writer brings you a new perspective of self-improvement. Mainly, it shows you how to see yourself as a businessman and take further decisions to enhance the various contexts in your life. Compiling an extensive list of methods made famous by worldwide trainers, thinkers and authors, this book is an allin-one guide to personal entrepreneurship.

If you confronted many a times aspects which had been simply regarded as immeasurable, than Hubbard comes to prove all otherwise in an extensively eloquent book that will provide businesses, government agencies or other organizations, with specific methods to measure fluctuating areas such as customer satisfaction, organizational flexibility or technology risk.

3. Big Data and The Internet of Things: Enterprise Information Architecture for A New Age

4. Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach

Organizations today often find themselves bombarded not by data, but by increasingly more massive amounts of information coming not only from traditional sources, but also from more novel technologies, such as everyday objects that are now reliant on an internet connection. Learn about the current state of data storage and manipulation and proceed to set up a future state architecture that accommodates the new trends of enterprise analytics solutions.

This new title discerns between the multiple strategies that target executives with bestselling idea and practices, and offers the most suitable strategic approach for you or your company. In an ever more competitive environment, aiming for the wrong strategy can prove to be fatal for one’s business.

Learn to address the most pressing challenges related to strategy selection and implementation to avoid future crisis.

5. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

6. Think to Win: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Thinking

This winter reflects the perfect time to head back to the classics and, in financial management at least, one book ultimately stands out amidst the thousands of releases on this subject. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a wonderful construction about how to make your money work for you, and not vice versa, within an allegorical tale of how each of the author’s two fathers taught him a different perspective and approach to finance, investment and earnings.

Published this summer, Think to win provides leaders with essential information on how to obtain their employees buyin, while also ensuring a sustainable growth environment within the organizational borders. By speaking a language that employees at all organizational levels can understand, the book shows the path for everyone to become a strategist, and not just the elitist top management representatives.

by John R. Potter

By Robert Stackowiak, Art Licht, Venu Mantha, Louis Nagode

By Robert T. Kiyosaki

By Douglas W. Hubbard

By Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes, Janmejaya Sinha

By Paul Butler, John F. Manfredi, Peter Klein

DECEMBER 2015 85

RESOURCES

THE FIRST STEPS OF A SOCIAL NETWORK Do you ever find yourself wondering about the beginnings of today’s social networking platforms?

What was their initial purpose, and were they ever prepared to go big?

T the birth and development of one of the

he Social Network is a movie documenting

leading social networking platforms of this era – Facebook, to be precise.

What started out as a simple online rating tool, used merely for entertainment, went on to become the biggest social media instrument, engulfing all of the other similar attempts, and exceeding its creator’s most daring dreams.

Mark Zuckerberg initially created a local database which listed most of his female colleagues, and was used by him and his friends to simply rate their visual appearance. In the beginning, this created somewhat of an outrage, as it was seen as shallow and demeaning.

Following after a short period, his fellow students wondered whether this platform could be used for much more – for actual social, online interaction.

86 DECEMBER 2015

Rating your peers can be a fun activity, but being able to know them on a more personal level became much more intriguing.

Harvard student, Christy Lee, asked them to “facebook her”, both were taken aback at the possibilities their platform could generate.

As such, Zuckerberg was approached by two Harvard upperclassmen, the Winklevoss twins and their business partner, Divya Narendra, and asked if he would like to develop a Harvard dating site, with all the necessary funding being provided by them. The young programmer had a stroke of genius – he could make such a website, but for the entire Ivy League community.

With the help of Eduardo Saverin, one of the cofounders of what will become Facebook, he set up the website, which became massively popular and, after a fellow

Their ride to greatness only took to new heights after Lee contacted another adventurous entrepreneur, Sean Parker, who founded Napster – a music-oriented online service. All four arranged a meeting and it was here that the first glimmers of what we know today as Facebook shone bright. Parker told them he sees in their website a “billion dollar” venture, but first they had to drop the “The” which was then integrated into the name of the platform.

Keeping it to the simpler version, “Facebook,” will make it sound “cleaner”.

He suggested they move to Palo Alto, so they can concentrate on improving and enhancing both the website’s options and its overall performance. From here on, the joyride that is Facebook was already unstoppable.

designed by Freepik.com

Performance Magazine, Printed Edition. Second issue, December, 2015. Content: News. Can you hear the music? Or how KPIs can alter reality. Performance in the big league. An Enel strategy. Volkswagen: improving performance the wrong way.

Performance Management in Namibia: contracts for all ministers. Sweden said “Yes!” to the 6-hour working day. Reaping rewards, increasing productivity. Business Development Manager reaches top 3 best jobs in America, in 2015. Connecting the dots: lack of innovation leads to failure of new products. Managers engaging employees on social media increase change success rates. Study links professional success to high EQ. Cover story: The state of the performance improvement and Key Performance Indicators in 2015. Expert Interviews: Ahmed Ragab. Principal Partner, Resilience&, Kuwait. Bert de Winter. Director of Logistics Operations for Printing & Personal Systems Hardware & Supplies EMEA, Hewlett-Packard, Belgium. Luis Gargalo. Management Control Systems Department Coordinator, Wayfield, Trading Internacional, SA – Grupo Refriango, Portugal. Michael J. Sutton. Associate Professor of Management Gamification, Serious Games, and Simulations, Westminster College, USA. Mohamad Yassine. Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Adjunct Professor, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait. Musa Bulus. Senior Strategy Analyst, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria. Around the World: Governmental Performance. The Illinois Department of Public Health. GRUMA Mexico. A Performance Model Built on Innovation. Reaching the Right Audience in North America: A Digital Marketing Perspective. Strategy Formulation: Emirates Identity Authority Strategic Plan 2014 – 2016. Strategy and Performance Management. How to improve your decision-making process? Emerging Performance Management Trends in 2015. Change Management and the Transitional Process in Organizations. 5 Emerging Manufacturing Trends. Employee Performance Management. Emotional Branding or How to Engage Customers Emotionally. The Challenges in Building an Employee Performance Centered Ecosystem.

Managing Difficult Employees. A topnotch leadership skill. Performance Measurement. Why Does It Take My Bank 90 Days to Approve a Loan? Game Measurement. A Recipe for Success. Innovation Performance. Evaluation of Research, Development and Engineering through KPIs. What do a video game and a MBA Professor Have in Common? Performance Improvement. Leaders, Life-cycles and Performance. Risk Management. Prisons. The Risk Management Experts. Ask the Experts. Which Data Matters the Most? Lifestyle. Unlocking Human Performance. A Leadership Challenge. What Makes You Happier: Buying or Doing? Why and How You Should First Invest in Yourself? Hardware Review. Form-1: Money-friendly 3D printing. The Adidas Smart Ball. When Accuracy Wind the Gold Medal. IKEA. A Kitchen for Our Future Selves. Software Review. Air Fuel Synthesis. Fixing Energy Supply Problems and Global Warming. SmartApps. Connecting Parts, Connecting Worlds. Sutisoft. Sutisoft Is Upgrading and You Should Too. PUSH. Fitness Measurement at Its Finest. Recommended.

Readings to Warm Up Your Winter. Punch Above Your Weight!: How to Succeed at Whatever You Want to Do, by John R. Potter. How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business, by Douglas W. Hubbard. Big Data and The Internet of Things: Enterprise Information Architecture for a New Age, by Robert Stackowiak, Art Licht, Venu Mantha, Louis Nagode. Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach, by Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes, Janmejaya Sinha. Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids about Money that the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, by Robert T. Kiyosaki. Think to Win: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Thinking, by Paul Butler, John F. Manfredi, Peter Klein. The First Steps of a Social Network. Keywords: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Balanced Scorecard. Performance Management. Performance Measurement. Performance Improvement. Strategy and Business Planning. Employee Performance Management. Supplier Performance Management. Personal Performance Management. Data Analysis. Data Visualization. Benchmarking. Customer Service Performance. Innovation Performance. Balanced Scorecard Management System Performance. Measurement. Evolution. Accuracy. Big Data. Management. Business Intelligence. Ethics. Education.

Solution. Problem-solving. Decision-making. Project Management. Project Planning. KPI Selection. KPI Documentation.

KPI Evaluation. KPI Life-cycle. Data gathering. Data presentation. Initiatives. Adjustment. Management techniques.

Ishikawa. The 5 Why’s. The Fishbone Technique. SWOT Analysis. Value Flow Analysis. Expert Interviews. Academics.

Consultants. Practitioners. Events. Research. Mission. Vision. Strategy. Best knowhow. Data and Facts. Common Sense. Data Accuracy. Performance Magazine Focus Categories: Editorials. News. Interviews. Multimedia. Strategy. Balanced Scorecard. KPI. Organizational Performance. Operational Performance. Individual Performance. Personal Performance. Around the World. Interviews. Articles.

Editorials. Multimedia. News. The KPI Institute’s Professional Certification Programs.