Our business operates two very different divisions, one for high volume software subscriptions and one for custom enterprise consulting services, and we are struggling to condense our weekly scorecard to just fifteen numbers without leaving one division completely blind. How do we select our fifteen critical company level metrics when we run multi divisional operations?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you run multiple business divisions, the temptation is to build a massive, complex scorecard that captures every operational nuance of both business units. This completely defeats the purpose of a leadership level scorecard, which is to provide a high level, five to fifteen number pulse of the entire organization. To resolve this, you must separate your company level scorecard from your departmental or divisional scorecards. Your leadership scorecard should only contain the ultimate leading indicators that dictate the overall health of your business, regardless of the division. For your subscription business, the company level metric might be new customer trials initiated. For your consulting business, it might be billable utilization rate. These are high level drivers. The deep, tactical metrics belong on the divisional scorecards managed by the respective department heads. To select the right five to fifteen numbers, ask yourself: if you were stranded on a desert island with only a weekly sheet of paper to tell you if the business is surviving, what are the absolute vital signs you need to see? You do not need to see every step of the process. You need the final, leading activity metrics that predict revenue, capacity, and client satisfaction for both models. Ensure these metrics are balanced. If you have eight metrics for the subscription side and only two for consulting, your scorecard is biased. Distribute the metrics so that both business models are represented by their primary leading indicators, and push everything else down to the divisional level.