Measure Vs. Treasure
Mark Inboden
By Mark Inboden
The other day, I was looking at some KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) that I track regularly. These are typical in the sense that they give me a snapshot of how we are operating. I view KPI's for accounts payables, accounts receivables, cash positions, etc. Years ago, I had a manager tell me that in business, “You Treasure what you Measure."
Recently, with the management restructuring we have done (see the "Bench Strength" blog post), I thought it might be an opportunity to turn some of these KPI’s on their heads.
While we were meeting, I asked my senior managers to “re-think” and add some new KPI’s to the mix. If we truly “treasure” spending more time with our families, maybe instead of just tracking Overtime hours, we track “Scheduled PTO Usage." Track how much time is being spent on “cross-training” between departments vs. just department efficiency. Instead of simply tracking departmental budget spending, look at budget savings. Let's examine reduction in “emergency shipments” vs. pricey UPS Red delivery.
At UCEC, we value certain things that make us unique from other companies. We are going to do a better job of measuring what we really treasure, so our employees and customers can enjoy their UCEC experience even more.
Mark is President and CEO of UCEC.