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My current organization is driven by a mission to transform client problems into captivating and groundbreaking films, commercials, brand identities, websites, designs, and media marketing strategies. As a full-service marketing, film, and creative agency, we produce documentary-style films, narrative commercials, holistic branding solutions, and placements across digital and traditional media. Our trademark phrase, "taking brands to new heights," encapsulates our unwavering commitment to elevating brands through innovative problem-solving.
As leaders, we must meticulously define success within our organizations, recognizing the importance of key performance indicators (KPIs) and implementing best practices to maximize organizational performance through comprehensive analysis.
Organizational Success Criteria
Organizational Success Criteria
Key performance indicators (KPIs) "measure a company's success versus a set of targets, objectives, or industry peers" (Twin, 2021, para. 2). At my current organization, we track several KPIs to gauge our organizational performance, including net promoter score (NPS), monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and customer retention rate over six months. These KPIs are carefully selected to reflect the different areas that impact profitability, allowing us to set measurable objectives and ensure we're achieving both growth and profitability benchmarks.
By combining data-driven metrics with a focus on espoused values, my current organization gains a comprehensive understanding of what's working well and what areas require improvement, both for employee satisfaction and client satisfaction.
By combining data-driven metrics with a focus on espoused values, my current organization gains a comprehensive understanding of what's working well and what areas require improvement, both for employee satisfaction and client satisfaction.
We place a strong emphasis on communicating our core values, and a key aspect of evaluating employee performance is assessing their adherence to these values. This assessment is conducted through a quarterly scorecard, where employees are rated based on how consistently they demonstrate the core values in their work. As Colquitt, LePine, and Wesson (2021) aptly point out, "it's one thing for a company to outwardly say something is important; it's another thing for employees to consistently act in ways that support those espoused values" (p. 515).
Organizational Analysis
Organizational Analysis
To ensure long-term sustainability, my current organization utilizes various tools, including a weekly scorecard, to monitor both financial and non-financial performance metrics. As Mirvis, Googins, and Kinnicutt (2010) highlight, fewer than forty percent of companies actively integrate sustainability practices into their operations. We excel at communicating monthly and quarterly goals at both the departmental and leadership levels. Regularly conducted employee feedback sessions, exit interviews, and confidential client surveys provide valuable insights into areas that require improvement, and we take prompt action to address identified issues.
We pay close attention to our flywheel, analyzing the patterns of client behavior from new business acquisitions to project completions. One area where we can further enhance our performance is our client guarantee. I was surprised to discover that the current guarantee primarily involves listening, creating a plan, delivering, and refining. A more comprehensive guarantee mechanism could include a full refund option if the provided services fail to meet client expectations.
I firmly believe that our focus extends beyond short-term viability, which merely provides a semblance of health, to encompass long-term sustainability. This approach prioritizes producing significant work, maintaining employee and client satisfaction, and cultivating a positive reputation within the industry, as advocated by Friedman and Kass (2018).
Analysis and Best Practices
Analysis and Best Practices
As a result of a series of mergers and acquisitions, my current organization presents a unique organizational dynamic that requires careful management to ensure optimal performance. It recognizes the significance of observable artifacts, such as symbols, structure, language, stories, and rituals, as well as espoused values (vision and mission statement) and basic underlying assumptions (Colquitt, LePine, and Wesson, 2021, pp. 513-516). Merging companies can be financially risky, with many failing to achieve their goals and up to 25 percent of top employees leaving within 90 days (Galpin, Whittington, and Maellaro, 2012). We have diligently followed best practices in acquisitions, ensuring that both companies are a cultural and financial fit.
My current organization understands the critical importance of "identifying key talent and taking action to retain it. Beyond retention, to foster the long-term success of the combined company, a concerted effort must also be made to re-engage key talent" (Galpin, Whittington, and Maellaro, 2012, p. 43). We proactively identify key talent, implement retention and re-engagement strategies, and promptly assess the performance and results of these individuals within the new company.
In the marketing industry, leaders can maximize organizational productivity by ensuring that employees clearly understand their responsibilities and the criteria for success in their roles. Innovation is a core value at my organization, and we regularly challenge ourselves to question the status quo and seek new and better ways of doing things. Results are shared with clients weekly using proprietary analytics and reporting tools. High-performing organizations must ensure that the assessment methods used "bring finance and line managers into some kind of meaningful dialogue that allows the company to benefit from both the relative independence of the former and the expertise of the latter" (Likierman, 2009, para. 32) so that those managing performance have a voice in the realities of the assessments.
Different types of leaders exist within an organization, including those who champion culture and those who champion measurable results. To achieve healthy organizational performance, a combination of solid leadership, clear goals, and a shared vision is essential. My emphasis on vision and core values ensures that a healthy future for the organization remains at the forefront, with an understanding that this vision both "defines a strategic direction and presents a conceptual map of how a company moves from its current reality to a desired future state" (Mirvis, Googins, and Kinnicutt, 2010, p. 316). Great leaders who drive organizational performance set clear goals, encourage and reward employees, and focus on person-organization fit.
References:
Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2021). Organizational behavior: Improving performance and commitment in the workplace (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Friedman, H. H., & Kass, F. (2018, February 22). 'Substance over form': Meaningful ways to measure organizational performance. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3128595
Galpin, T., Whittington, J. L., & Maellaro, R. (2012). Identifying and retaining key talent during mergers and acquisitions. People & Strategy, 35(2), 42-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2013.04421baa.004
Likierman, A. (2009, October). The five traps of performance measurement. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2009/10/the-five-traps-of-performance-measurement
Mirvis, P., Googins, B., & Kinnicutt, S. (2010). Vision, mission, values: Guideposts to sustainability. Organizational Dynamics, 39(4), 316-324. https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/science/article/pii/S0090261610000604?via%3Dihub
Twin, A. (2021, July 6). Key performance indicators (KPIs). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/kpi.asp
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