Customer Reviews

Performance Management: Finding the Missing Pieces (to Close the Intelligence Gap) (Wiley and SAS Business Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There aren't a lot of really good books about performance management, and performance measurement specifically, available yet. Too many of them are overly prescriptive in what to measure and very light on the details of how to measure (properly).

Because I specialise in performance measurement (and have done for over 14 years now), I've read quite a bit in this field and expected that Gary's book was going to be another one I'd refuse to recommend to my clients and subscribers.

But that's not what happened. I actually really enjoyed Gary's book, and support a lot of his philosophy about performance management. It's got to have strong alignment to strategy, it's got to be well thought through, it's not really about scorecards and technology, it's about making it easier to execute strategy, and it's about reliable and objective data.

It's a great book to give people that really need to take performance management more seriously, particularly senior managers and executives. It's not a book for the operational manager that is new to performance measurement (in this case try "Performance Scorecards" by Chang and Morgan).

If execution is the goal these days, then this book brings an interesting perspective -- it's both big picture AND 'how to do it' at the same time. Cokins does a great job of putting the execution imperative into the larger context of "why." A good read for a reminder of basic performance management tools and for exploring how they work best in the context of today's tough business environment.

Gary's book, on Performance Management published by Wiley, does an excellent job of pointing out there are no "Silver Bullets" or management tools that solve all problems. Combinations of the right techniques is an art. Bold graphics and flow charts in the book do much to stimulate the thought process. Business failure is often a result of inadequate performance management systems. Survival in today's global economy requires many of the better performance management techniques described in Gary's new book. A great addition to any business library. Bill Hass, Certified Turnaround Professional, wjhass@aol.com

This not a common book about Performance Management. It integrates several methodologies like Activity Based Management, Balanced Score carding, Value Management and Customer Profitability Management.

If you want to know more about Performance Management roots, this book can be a practical guide to understand several aspects involved when you are working to implement successfully a PM initiative.

Good work Gary!

I met Gary at a SAS conference the other day and we had a discussion on various issues. One of them being the query of why so many strategies to improve performance fail. Is it in the design or the execution of strategy? Gary popped the commonly accepted view that it is failure to execute otherwise sound strategies. And I replied, being a Strategy Consultant for over 16 years, that I haven't seen a sound strategy yet. After some debat we agreed that design and execution are equaly important.

This book is about execution of sound strategies using a series of quantifiable performance management methods. These are most popular in the Anglo-Saxon (US/UK) world and have been exported to the European mainland as well where they compete with qualifiable performance management systems. What is the difference? Quantifiable PMS' are based on measurement and consequences as strategy and tactics are imposed top-down. Qualifiable PMS' however are based upon a 'meeting-in-between' strategy process where productivity is boosted by inspiration, motivation and creativity. Employee involvement is the key. Instead of using fixed targets and bandwiths, one would use waypoints and scenario's, leaving the control of execution to operational teamleaders. (In W.W.II the Germans were 1.7 times more effective than the Allied forces using qualifiable techniques, even though they were outnumbered 3 to 1 by allied forces using quantifiable techniques). Qualifiable techniques are based on the assumption that operational conditions and short term objectives change all too rapidly for a rigid approach of planning & control. But if operational teamleaders understand the strategic and tactical objectives they can easily adapt to new conditions.

However Gary's latest book is the best book on quantifiable PMS' since Maximum Performance Management by Boyett & Conn (that actually tries to combine qualifiable and quantifiable techniques).

Don't just buy it, read it!

From TQM to Balanced Score Cards - this is the book that provides a practical synthesis. Focus on cause and effect relationships and away from abstractions. Must have book.

This not a common book about Performance Management. It integrates several methodologies like Activity Based Management, Balanced Score carding, Value Management and Customer Profitability Management.

If you want to know more about Performance Management roots, this book can be a practical guide to understand several aspects involved when you are working to implement successfully a PM initiative.