KPI for the elite, or business consultants against small business

And if there is no money, tie a broom to the pope.
Go and mark. Outline - come.
(Principle of business consultants)

Business consultants are very important people. They consider themselves to be the custodians of secret knowledge, one of the few who are subject to KPI and business processes. According to them, no one except them can even understand what it is and does not even dare to use these words in vain.
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And if so, then they have the right to demand any money for building the system of these KPIs. And that means small and medium business remains “in the span”. Even with a strong desire to implement the correct system of balanced indicators, they have no money.

We have repeatedly written about ways to build a balanced scorecard for a small and medium-sized company ( part 1 , part 2 , part 3 ). And after each, in addition to useful comments and suggestions, they wrote contemptuous words: “What can you understand in this topic?”. These were business consultants.
First, let's understand who the business consultants are and where they come from.

In theory, everything should happen like this: after a prestigious university, a person comes to a large company and grows in positions and experience, consistently going through all career steps. Along the way, the future consultant finishes his MBA course, streamlining the experience gained from his work.

And what about the reality? A young man takes a loan (at best) or father's money (at worst) and goes to a prestigious university. There he gets a set of sample knowledge. Moreover, this knowledge is 90% applicable to large businesses.

Why? Well, our student (who paid a full amount of tuition) after the end of the uni will not work for a car wash. So it must be pumped up with knowledge that will be useful to him in large corporations.

Then the work begins. Successive movement on the career ladder has long been left in the past and now the employees are divided into two types. The former use patronage or power of persuasion and move quickly upstairs. The second ones work long and hard ... on the lower floors.

Most of the lucky ones, sitting down in easy chairs in large cabinets, will stay in them until retirement. But some still go on a free flight. Some do not like to go to work every day, preferring a free schedule. Others are sent to the flight more successful competitors. After all, there are not enough chairs and offices.

In any case, we have a man of working age, who has recently held a high position, who is accustomed to live well and eat deliciously. In his head - the knowledge of the work of corporations, laid down at the university and rammed into the MBA. Where does this person go? Of course, in business consultants.



A consultant is a person who gives advice. Tips from your experience or from someone else. Sometimes tips help, sometimes not. But even in this case, not a single normal consultant admits his guilt. He will explain that his plan was not implemented accurately or too accurately, there was a crisis, Trump was elected president, oil took off, the ruble fell ... He also gives advice, but what advice from the council?

Here we come to the topic of our conversation - why there are no KPI techniques for small and medium businesses.

Small businesses need a simple, clear and easy-to-implement solution. And typical. Because the owner of a small company will not be able to allocate money for a sweet life to a consultant. He should listen to the course, read the book, run the program - and get an acceptable result. Say, this can not be?

• 10 years ago, CRM systems were an attribute of a large business. Now amoCRM and SalesForce have lowered the cost below the baseboard.
• 5 years ago, ERP cost as an airplane and was introduced exclusively by business consultants. Now afford a system class 1C: UPP can each medium company.
• Now for the full implementation of KPI requires serious investment. But who knows what will happen tomorrow?

So, what you need to adapt the theory of KPI for small and medium businesses.

1. Simplify existing techniques.

The owner or director of a small business is not interested in anyone who stole the KPI idea Norton and Kaplan. They fall into a stupor after reading in the original works about KPI terms like "stakeholder".

Yes, and they have everything arranged much easier, the coordination processes are much shorter, and the business processes are clearer. Therefore, the complexity of the original methods for them is unnecessary, and the required level of understanding is too high.

Small business is run by people who are good professionals in their field, but not MBA graduates. In addition, such people and so worries are full, they have no time to study the literature about Balanced Scorecard Systems.

2. To issue a technique in the form of sequential actions.

“Do it once - do it twice - do it three” - this is the best way to guarantee the implementation of KPI in companies without reference to the qualifications of managers.

Nobody wants to delve into the theory, everyone wants to get the maximum of clear instructions, and all at once.

3. Implement software that will automate the installation of KPI as much as possible.

Humanity began to create programs, partly in order to reduce the complexity of introducing new management methods. Later businessmen’s consultants found a new niche for themselves - the introduction of such systems.

But for a small business there should be no implementation. The program itself will ask questions and build a KPI structure based on the answers.

Since so far there are no people willing to engage in such works, we at Kickidler decided to apply our own efforts to adapt KPI to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Stage 1 has already been completed by 60 percent and in a month we plan to issue the first version of the document for public viewing.

Well, we must somehow respond to the reproaches that we can only deal with the accounting of working time ;)