Quite naturally, many organizations over-rate the quality of their enterprise and corporate performance management (EPM / CPM) practices and systems. In reality they lack in in terms of how comprehensive and how integrated they are. For example, when you ask executives how well they measure and report either costs or non-financial performance measures, most proudly boast that they are very good. Again, this is inconsistent and conflicts with surveys where anonymous replies from mid-level managers candidly score them as “needs much improvement.”
Every organization cannot be above average!
What makes exceptionally good EPM systems exceptional?
Let’s not attempt to be a sociologist or psychologist and explain the incongruities between executives boasting superiority while anonymously answered surveys reveal inferiority. Rather let’s simply describe the full vision of an effective EPM system that organizations should aspire to.
First, we need to clarify some terminology and related confusion. EPM is neither solely a system nor solely a process. It is instead the integration of multiple managerial methods – and most of them have been around for decades arguably even before there were computers. EPM is also not just a CFO initiative with a bunch of scorecard and dashboard dials. It is much broader. Its purpose is not about monitoring the dials but rather moving the dials.
What makes for exceptionally good EPM is when multiple managerial methods are not only individually effective but also are seamlessly integrated and enhanced through embedded analytics of all flavors. Examples for using analytics to enhance EPM are to perform data segmentation, clustering, regression, and correlation analysis.
EPM is like musical instruments in an orchestra
I like to think of the various EPM methods as an analogy of musical instruments in an orchestra. An orchestra’s conductor does not raise their baton to the strings, woodwinds, percussion, and brass and say, “Now everyone play loud.” They seek balance and guide the symphony composer’s fluctuations in harmony, rhythm and tone.
Here are my six main groupings of the EPM methods – its musical instrument sections...:
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