Question

Coors Brewing Company has hired you to advise them on an expansion strategy to grow their business by 20% while maintaining costs within 5%. Considering each foundation (Businesses / Organization; Competition; Market Forces; Prospects & Customers) and any sub-groups, list the top 10 KPIs you recommend tracking. Explain how your selection helps Coors identify strategic opportunities and optimize the strategic plan once it’s in market.

Answer 1

The parameter of expanding and big business varies according to your willingness, nature of business and many other factors.

I am going to mention some natural and most used ways to grow your business. So choose according to your business requirement.

1- Investing in business- get accurate reports of your business funds and make a plan of that, how much you can invest in the business. Spent it on retaining talent, improve training, or you can also invest in inventory.

2- Team prioritization- Entrepreneurs do many tasks at their own like, accounting, human resource, marketing, etc. However, it's difficult to handover some aspect of the business to another person. So prioritize your need and hire suitable talent which can add value to your business.

3- Cash flow- Growth of any business can put a strain on the cash flow that is why many businesses fail while attempting to grow. So be sure forecast and monitor your cash flow regularly.

4- Partnership- Many small business owners partnering with large and more established firms who are ready to scale. They are all required resources, manufacturing facilities, supply chain, etc.

5- Diversifying- With one product, your growth could be limited. But by diversifying your product variants, you can open up new channels of incomes. But be sure your primary product selling successful.

6- Saving- It found very annoying when we talked about savings. Although all entrepreneurs have limited funds and already focused on saving, But some the key areas of your business where you can still save more.

For example: Accounting department, a non-revenue generating department but consumes a lot of precious time to manage the day to day transactions, preparing taxes, etc. while an accounting expert can save hundreds of precious hours and able to give to you accurate reports which ultimately helps you to make informed business decisions.

Key Performance Indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to evaluate their success at reaching targets. High-level KPIs may focus on the overall performance of the business, while low-level KPIs may focus on processes in departments such as sales, marketing, HR, support and others.

Making your KPIs actionable is a five-step process:

1. Review business objectives
2. Analyze your current performance
3. Set short and long term KPI targets
4. Review targets with your team
5. Review progress and readjust   

Although the actual KPIs can vary from business to business, the basic ingredients are the same. KPIs are metrics that represent the vital numbers your company tracks to help solve problems or give insight to the current and future health of your company. There are two types of KPIs: leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators guide you and give you a glimpse into the future and highlight areas where you may need to make adjustments, such as a Qualified Sales Lead. Lagging indicators report the results of our company’s actions at a fixed moment in time based on previous activities, such as Sales Revenue. A great set of KPIs for your company will include a healthy mix of leading and lagging indicators.

KPIs need to be KEY performance indicators, meaning they need to be the most valuable metrics that drive the overall growth of your company. We recommend that you have 8-12 KPIs to track your performance. You want to measure what you want to move, not everything that moves! If you have more than this currently, you need to whittle down the least important metrics. If it is tough for you to get rid of them all at once, set a goal to eliminate one each quarter until you get it down to the right number. It doesn’t mean that you don’t track those other metrics, they just aren’t the Key Performance Indicators. Just as a doctor has literally thousands of things they can measure, they only have four vital signs that are the most representative of the overall health of the patient. If doctors can save your life with four metrics, you can make your business thrive with 12!

Step 1: Determine What to Measure

• What are the key metrics that tell you if your business is healthy?
• What metrics do you look at to know if our company (or department) had a good week?
• Is there a specific problem you need to solve?

Step 2: Set Clear Success Criteria

• How will you know if you’ve achieved success?
• What’s the goal you are trying to reach?
• When do you know you have a real problem?

Step 3: Set Data Standards

Your data is only as good as what you enter, so be sure you are all reporting it the same way!

• Make sure you are all measuring the same way.
• Agree on a quarterly, monthly or weekly time horizon.
• Decide on a deadline for updating status and hold the team accountable.

Step 4: Review Your KPIs

• Do you have a good mix of leading and lagging indicators?
• Were you blindsided by anything last quarter?
• Are you talking about the right things in your Weekly Meetings?