Can OKRs and KPIs help your business scale?

Warning: we are about the enter the world the acronyms! I will be talking about KPVs, KPIs, OKRs, APQC, APQP, PMAP, OEE, SPC and probably some that I have missed.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are one way to turn data into insight. KPIs are a type of performance measurement that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. This is where OKR come in.

What does OKR mean?

OKRs are Objectives and Key Results and were introduced by Intel and popularised by Google, with many people pointing to OKRs as the main reason Silicon Valley became so successful. OKRs create a goal management framework that, when done well, can help businesses to create focus on individual tasks that, when added together, help achieve or surpass a company’s goal.

Capability to achieve these tasks is made up of people, processes and tools (or resources). At Atlas we have combined these elements into a single scalable platform. Business processes are described in Atlas Play, the resources are defined in Atlas Optimise, and the KPIs are calculated in Atlas Boost.

By using a framework like APQC, any business can start to map their business processes, associate KPIs to them and make effective use of the resources used during that work. On the face of it this sounds easy and the physical activity of mapping those processes isn’t difficult at all.

The tricky bit comes when a business tries to scale. This is when obstacles like opinions, culture, and silo thinking create barriers. The best way to create adoption of any system is to make that system convenient, fun and easy to use.

With scalable technology like cloud, come scalable business models like SaaS. But is your business ready for scale? Can your business break down the barriers? Can your business take advantage of the scalable economy offered by these Industry 4.0 technologies?