By Dr. Martin M. Lwanga
Bank regulations provide that financial institutions should release their performance figures annually. This often comes through an exhibition of Profit and Loss, Balance sheet and other critical milestones.As they release their performance they are certain figures those that follow the industry, particularly investors, are most keen on. For example, figures such as: customer deposits, growth in revenues, net profit, growth in assets or liabilities, etc, are expected highlights. In many instances the company would have set targets before as a performance benchmark.The targets are carefully weighed against last years performance to determine if there is progress.
In managing organizations there is no modern organization that can flourish without such performance indicators. Performance indicators are peculiar of course per industry. For example, in the non government sector one would expect numbers such as beneficiaries served and of course growth in revenues.The eager public looks up to them waiting to hear how one is doing.
The idea of having performance targets is good for any business or organization. When owners of any business examine the performance of an organization through those indicators there are not much bothered about incidental operational issues. What counts in the end are results.
Unfortunately many managers do make the mistake of spending an inordinate amount of time handling incidental issues. They spend hours in meetings which have no bearing on results. Here one had to be careful. Mundane issues, whatever there are, can only be meaningful where they affect performance indicators.
Should you be running an establishment always watch where your time is going. Without performance indicators it means you are wandering aimlessly.Performance indicators serve as an evaluation tool, help to benchmark your performance against peers and do motivate us well.
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