Together!

Few of us have the possibility to look through the spyglass beyond the horizon into the next 5 or 10 years for a corporation. Even if the future is not “visible”, the strategy, the set road for the corporation, becomes the target for the future for all its employees. Some aspects of this personal vision are shared with others within the company, others are not.
The annual target for the next five-year sales turnover is the main outcome of this outlook, becoming the milestone for the yearly budget exercise. Acquisitions, new targeted markets, downsizing or production transfers are the ones which usually remain in the back yard, not shared.

Small things and colorful images sometimes create distorted vision and blind spots.

The binocular is needed for the Yearly Budgeting time, always the great hopes and despairs for the plant’s management and the central functions. The horizon seen by the top few, especially regarding turnover, is usually not consistent with the figures coming from sales. The consolidated annual report in controlling does not match with the original sales … and so on.
So, we do it again and again to meet the milestones for the budget exercise, all of these with huge effort from a large number of people. We strive to find the gaps and to balance the outcome and the expenses thru the organization, everything under high time pressure.
Sometimes what you “see” is the reality of your budget. Don’t lie to yourself; don’t fix the image of your budget – you will “see” it all year long in details.

Dear management,
Put on your glasses for the usual monthly SIOP meeting looking to the next quarter results. You need to “see” the directs heads, as well as to take into account (predict) the disruptions with the new projects. All of these after you will have leveled the sales and have made your magic over the stock variation and at the last (but not least) have compared it with the budget and start to prepare some further excuses regarding the differences.

Now dear management,
You need to use your naked eye to go through the weekly review of the targets and “see” the end of the month results. Mainly to “see” and “believe” how the month will end / how far or close you are from the target and at least “learn” what you shall do next time. It is time for reflection and understanding about the impact on the results.

It is a dangerous habit to wear horse blinders and pretend this helps you focus on the results

Many people within the companies will use the “microscope” to look at the daily results, analyze the deviations, take actions based on the data “seen”. Unfortunately, the truth is that very few are able to look through the daily microscope at the reality of the production lines.
Simply, the data is ignored and the usual expectation is that the “top” management will tell us what to do.

All of the above mentioned “optical instruments” will help you only if you use them correctly.

Attention!
Incorrect use of them can cause “blurry corporate vision”, “denial of reality” and sometimes even “corporate paralysis”.

But never, never ever, look into the Kaleidoscope to “see” your business!