Corporate Performance Management Conference: TakeAways

Last thursday we attended the Annual Corporate Performance Management Conference which was held last in Noordwijkerhout last thursday. After arriving fashionably late and a rebuke of the organisation (thanks Danja!) the congres turned out to be a great succes. Our Deloitte stand had a big part in this succes.

A few takeaways sticked in our memory which we would gladly share with you.

• At Trespa they keep their managers eager by displaying, every day, a KPI dashboard which directly relates to their bonus. And if the dashboard is offline for a second the managers start complaining (even in the weekends)!
• Why do you need 98 KPI's to manage a company while you can fly a Boeing by just ten indicators? However you will need correct data to support your KPI's! Did you ever fly with a Boeing with an altimeter (altitude indicator) saying 3000 feet while you were flying 30 feets above the grounds? Arnold Pureveen (De Alliantie) likes to call it the Duck Theory (whatever that may mean). We like to say: "Just KISS" (KISS: Keep It Simple and Sound).
• 'Just do it' is not only known as Nike's motto it is also the corporate CPM phylosophy of Arcelor Mittal. When they take-over new companies they just say: ''deliver the necessary information; incompleteness and incorrectness is of later concern''. This makes it possible for Mittal to fully integrate new companies in their Planning & Control cycle within a month. This effective strategy only works for large companies where small companies have no material impact.
• Child Care is a hot issue in the dutch society. A few years ago it was more or less like a 'soft' sector in Holland. Nowadays big controllers and financial directors are switching to this sector to give it the necessary professionalism. A great example is Wim Westerink from SKON. First the financial man at Mexx Europe, now one of the leading persons behind one of the biggest (within a few months the biggest if we may believe Wim Westerink) child care organisation in the Netherlands.
• The winner of the CPM Award 2006 is Tjero Zomer (CFO at Transavia.com). Performance Management is one of the main foundations of the operational management at Transavia. This year Transavia closed their books (including IFRS adjustments) within five days. This is a textbook example of what we call at Deloitte 'A Fast Close' and a perfect benchmark for other companies in the sector.
• Due to a fever Dennis van der Geest was unable to attend. Cor, his father replaced him. Cor has been very succesful as a coach for different judokas. He gave the audience his point of view on 'how to manage performance'. He illustrated this by lively examples and made clear that to be successful you need a leader that can inspire.