Someone recently told me about a conversation they’d had with Henry Engelhardt, the founder and CEO of Admiral Insurance. Engelhardt, an American, said the key to his success has been managing to the numbers.
At the close of business each day he gets a report (presumably a dashboard) of his core KPIs. One sheet of A4 tells him exactly how his business is doing. He says us Brits don’t manage by the numbers enough.
But isn’t leading and managing a business all about moving the numbers?
Feed more of the hungry, house more of the homeless;
Decrease the cost of sales, grow stakeholder value;
More page views, fewer bounces;
Acquisition costs down, conversion rates up;
Increase quality, decrease errors;
More support, fewer complaints;
Waste less, save more;
Ship more goods, shrink the deficit;
More followers, less churn;
Golf handicap down, stamina up (more a metephor, but you get it).
If you agree with Engelhardt, what numbers are you trying to move this month? This year?
Frank Tyger said, “Progress is not created by contented people.”
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As someone who lives and breathes numbers, what concerns me about those who manage by the numbers is the failure of many to appreciate decent cause and effect; they assume that added weight on one side of the scales won’t affect the other.
Tweaking a number here, or a margin there may affect things for a time next week, but so many businesses are too far away from appreciating that it can take a cultural shift in brand or behaviour to REALLY make the numbers dance.