If you are serious, get serious.
Serious analysis requires serious tools. The process has to be programmatic, reproducible without guesswork, and have the ability to be validated. Many meetings I have participated in the last few weeks have centered on our clients desire to achieve a level of intelligence that will help improve company profitability. Various stakeholders question the credibility of the data being provided, the frequency in which it is provided, how it is being provided, and the what the information is telling them.
Many organizations are great at tracking lagging indicators. Wikipedia defines a lagging indicator as an economic indicator that summarizes past events rather than explicitly predicting future events. For example, in an academic medical group, Work RVU's is a lagging indicator that reflect physician productivity.
Most organizations struggle with developing leading indicators. Wikipedia states that leading indicators are generally used to predict a new phase of the business cycle. A leading indicator is one that changes before your economy does; a lagging indicator is one that changes after the economy has changed. An example of a leading indicator could be the number of new patients see during clinic activity, which will often improve or worsen before a similar change in the economy.
Too many times we ask ourselves, "What happened?" We all spend time and money on tools that help us to analyze lagging indicators and past performance. I would love to hear from anyone out there who have created leading indicators. This seems to be a concept we have yet to actualize.
Chris George, CEO, Think First
http://www.thinkfirst.us
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