Odimbite Odimbite: Everyone Cares About Performance
Everyone truly cares about performance: both their own and that of others. In all walks of life, everyone is concerned about performance.
Performance is the act of doing well in any task or endeavour. Performance management is a process through which the act of doing well is implemented. The definition of doing well is a moving target. What is “well” varies with economic and other social realities at any given time. Do individuals in an organization really need to perform? Does an organization need to perform? At a general level, yes! But why must an individual or the organization perform? Organizations perform so they will survive in the long term, become significant and build followership. The individual performs to earn a pay, sustain means of income and make some meaning out of life. But is that all that should drive performance?
Intrinsic Value
What is then the intrinsic value in performing at all? What are the elements, nature, constituents, components of performance an organization, her staff, external publics and partners recognize, consider useful, important and desirable? Their frameworks differ and so why they perform also differs. Once organizations, her staff, external publics and partners align with themselves on what is important, consistent performance streak is born that will truly satisfy the entire business. Most organizations don’t have this outlook yet. Every organization operates within this milieu and these actors must be recognized and plotted into the performance matrix and corporate objectives of the enterprise. Churning out Wall Street figures to excite investors shouldn’t be sole reason to perform.
External Publics Performance Intrinsic Value
Businesses value exceptional performance, on-target performance but punishes below target outcomes. Investors and other external stakeholders would clap for an organization they recognize performs well. External assessments of the performance of an organization differ from internal benchmarks. Business leaders often congratulate themselves for top line figures: exceptional revenue growth, bottom-line growth, cost containment, operational efficiency, speed to market of new products, improved dividend growth and script issue offered investors and shareholders. In the midst of these celebrations, the external publics may simply see the organization as a shylock, a poor performer because critical expectations of the performance-evaluating publics like impactful corporate social responsibility, community development, scholarships, contribution to social causes and supporting cleaner environment weren’t met. Businesses that focus on corporate results alone would be failing with the external publics. It’s imperative to research and identify performance characteristic that the external publics consider very important, desirable and necessary. Organizations cannot define this intrinsic value for the external publics. Knowing this dimension and including it in performance matrix of the business will be added reason why the organization has to perform.
Suppliers and Partners’ performance intrinsic value
Key suppliers and channel members (distributors, wholesalers, and retailers) view organizational performance differently. Key suppliers see exceptional performance in terms of paying off their bills promptly, increasing flow of supplies, communication flow and business integration between the organization and their supply positions. Organizations need to identify and recognize suppliers and key business partners’ intrinsic value of performance. When and what makes key suppliers know the organization has performed well? Despite the backslapping and the exciting numbers reeled out, does key suppliers agree? Organizations manhandle their major suppliers, almost crippling their operations and yet announce fantastic results. Distributors and other channel members may be carrying huge stock, face a glut market and unprofitable operations because of fierce price competition amongst channel members yet the organization array formidable results. When the channel isn’t sustainable, faces low margins, carries huge debts and is almost extinct while the organization announces good results won’t impress channel members. What is important to key suppliers and channel members? How does key suppliers and channel members measure and rate an organization’s performance?
An organization shouldn’t win at the expense of her suppliers and channel members. All stakeholders must be winning at the same time with the organization simultaneously for the organization to truly perform. These should be researched and included as a major corporate objective and achieved together with the numbers as these partners also constitute the enterprise’s total value chain. Effectively competing in the market place doesn’t mean conquering an organization’s suppliers and channel members. These institutions energize, motivate and greatly contribute to the fantastic figures usually announced. They are a good part of the success story. Unrecognized, they won’t work in the best interests of the enterprise if opportunity ever shows up. No enterprise can ignore these partners and maintain a competitive edge in the long run.
Staff performance intrinsic value
I have seen some enterprises who announce fantastic top line and bottom-line results whilst the staff are bleeding and cursing the organization. The reason for staff unhappiness is they feel used, dumped, unrewarded and uncared for. They feel they are driven as slaves with the organizational leaders acting as task masters. If organizations perform well and yet the staff is very unhappy, then that organization hasn’t defined, known or measure staff intrinsic value of performance.
What motivates the staff to perform in the organization? What one reason makes staff to perform? What major performance characteristic does the staff know and intrinsically value? How is this major performance characteristic measured, developed, communicated, implemented, appraised and rewarded in the organization? Organizations at all levels of leadership must identify this major intrinsic value. This makes a huge difference between great companies and companies on survival path. If staff has to perform to survive, then staff isn’t fully engaged. Staff will mostly work with their hands and not their heads. The quality of innovation and creativity will be low. Even though the organization announces fantastic results, in reality, they could have done far better should the organization understand the concept of intrinsic value of staff performance.
Conclusion
Intrinsic value of staff performance should be tied up together with that of suppliers, partners and external publics. Businesses should do extremely well in all these spheres together with financial measures. This is the way great companies should function.
Odimbite Odimbite is Co-Founder, Metrodelight Foods Limited, Nigeria.
