I have just returned from another excellent Shipley’s Business Club breakfast and am writing this, literally, on the run between meetings because there were a few items of collective wisdom that resonated with me and which, I hope, will be helpful to you….

We were looking at ……

Indicators for Trusted Advisors and Critical Friends to a business

The topics, indicators and information, you would look to explore, beyond the usual financial information from accounts and balance sheets, if you were in a trusted Advisor or critical friend to a business owner.

As always, at Shipley’s business club, there was a wealth of insight and information. Here is the list I co-created and curated from other people’s insights:

  • The accuracy of sales forecasts to actual results. The smaller the gap the better!
  • The extent to which the Business Plan is used and built into the planning, execution and reporting processes within the business.
  • The quality of the sales pipeline and margin
  • The usage of KPIs to measure and benchmark selective business performance areas. By the way, a couple of bankers in the room suggested that most SME Bankers should be able to provide useful KPIs for your business sector if you ask them nicely!

Finally, 2 gems from Chris Ragg, our facilitator:

  1. Check that the Senior Team members are all working from the same assumptions when looking at the business and the future.
  2. Brands are only useful until they are replaced with a face you trust.

Quite a few people were interested in my usage of the Livescribe Echo Smartpen which I went public on this week in this post

Onwards and upwards,

Richard