20-20 Vision at Every Distance

A lot of companies fail because they get either too focused on the short- term (hitting the quarterly results) or too focused on the long-term (endlessly creating strategic plans but never executing). It’s easy to get caught up in the crisis of the moment, or the optimism of the future, but to be successful, organizations need to be able to focus on both the short- term, the long-term and  all the points in between. Our most successful clients are the ones who can manage multiple time horizons.

Done right, business intelligence imposes the discipline to continually look at different distances in the future. For example, a dashboard detailing sales information is used for the here and now. A scorecard of metrics measured against goals is a good mid-term tool. A rolling budget which is revised monthly or quarterly but forecasts a year or two into the future can keep everyone involved and focused on the future. Budgeting this way forces people to focus on this month, next year, and all the points in between.

The best business intelligence solutions create metrics and report mechanisms so that organizations can measure and monitor their achievement of the long-term strategic plan on a day-by-day, month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter, and year-to-year basis. For an organization to thrive, they need to understand and maximize their performance in each of these timelines.