Get the Check. Cash the Check.

When boiled down to its simplest form, there are really two top-level processes which comprise most any business:  Get the check. Cash the check. 

There are certain things a business needs to accomplish in order to “Get the check”, and there are certain things the organization has to deliver in order to “Cash the check.”  To execute these key processes, the business requires two ingredients – resources (people, facilities, technology), and organizational structure.

How effectively the business organizes itself, applies its resources, and executes its processes will determine its customer satisfaction and ultimately drive financial success or failure.

To develop strategic objectives, a business must examine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats - relative to these core components, from both an internal and external perspective. The strategic objectives derived from that assessment will inherently be focused on resources, processes, organizational effectiveness, and how those components satisfy the customer, driving financial results. An enterprise level balanced scorecard essentially reflects this succinct simple view of the business, i.e. the company’s sixty-second elevator pitch.   

In managing strategy execution against its key objectives, the organization should strive to keep it equally simple.  How are you doing "Getting the Check" and how are you doing "Cashing the Check"?

There is no need for voluminous amounts of metrics, transactional data, nor extraordinary means to collect it, slice and dice it - in order to assess performance at the strategic level. A few simple, transparent, and strategically relevant performance indicators associated with each objective is all that should be strived for to measure performance and drive results.