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Be informed about the Medications You Take.
The recent withdrawal of the prescription drugs Vioxx and Bextra have arthritis patients concerned about their health, lawyers busy with lawsuits, and Congress poring over thousands of pages of documents obtained from the manufacturer. The drugs,...
Minimum Credit Card Payments to Rise
For years, major credit card companies have allowed cardholders to make minimum payments of 2% of the outstanding balances on their credit cards. Having customers pay the minimum doesn’t reduce the balance by very much, but when the 18-30% interest...
Structured Settlement – Guaranteed Income for those with Disabilities
Up until twenty years ago, anyone who won a lawsuit as a result of a claim involving worker’s compensation, wrongful death or accident had to accept a lump sum payment as their compensation. The payment would be intended to be invested, with the...
Student Loans Can’t Be Swept Away Through Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is in the news these days, as Congress has finally overhauled the Federal bankruptcy law after years of talking about it. The credit card companies, rightly or wrongly, have been pressuring members of Congress to tighten the bankruptcy...
To Factor or Not to Factor?
The purchasing of accounts receivable (invoices) is generally known as factoring. Businesses can sell their invoices to companies known as factors. Although not all businesses are familiar with factoring, historians claim that factoring dates back...
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Measure It First, Then You Can Manage It
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Companies may be able to survive for a while if managers aren’t using data to make decisions, but they will eventually see their demise; likely sooner than later. Those companies to benchmark off are the ones who are not only surviving, but thriving! Pick your favorite phrase: TQM, Process Management, Quality Circles, Improvement Teams, Standards and Measurement departments or any other title you prefer. The function is the same. Look at baseline data – percentages, dollars, hours, quantities – and continuously monitor the performance.
There should not be any task that a supervisor or staff members perform that cannot be measured. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Take a fast food restaurant for example. There are a plethora of areas that can be measured such as days without an accident, customer wait time in line, length of time burgers are in the warmer, amount of money off in the drawers, customer complaints, etc. Graph it out and keep a spread sheet of your figures. Clearly you’re looking for improvement. If there was a decline, brainstorm, find the root cause and then fix the
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problem.
The process is the same no matter what industry you’re managing. Whether you manufacture widgets, if you are the CEO of an internet marketing firm or if you sell cookies, take a look at all the steps involved in day to day operations. Assign values to the process. Set goals. Review the results on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Remember, if you can’t measure it, you can’t mange it. Charts and graphs are an excellent tool to visually remind you of where you have been and where you plan to go.
In the midst of measuring your subordinates’ performance, don’t neglect to measure and manage your own operations. Don’t think for a minute that your boss isn’t looking at your performance. And if you’re the top dog, you had better be managing yourself well, or you will never succeed at managing others
About the Author
James Louis writes about things that impact our society. His years of experience in finance prompts him to write about and share his insights about different aspects of the financial world. One of those insightful subjects is Structured Settlements. For more information visit his Structured Settlement site.
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