![\"16303418925_53410c842d\"](\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/16303418925_53410c842d-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEvery type of business, not to mention every type of manager, has a different set of vital statistics that really matter. For manufacturing people, it could be inventory turns, on-time delivery, and unit cost. For marketing people, it could be new\u00a0account closings, market share, and sales growth. For call center managers, it could be the time it takes to answer, number of dropped calls, and employee retention.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re running a business, though, whether it\u2019s a corner store or a multi-product multinational, we would say there are three key indicators that really work: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.<\/p>\n
These measurements won\u2019t tell you everything you need to know, but close to it. They get right to the guts of a company\u2019s\u00a0overall performance, now and in the future.<\/p>\n
Employee engagement first. It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without\u00a0energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why you need to take the measure of employee engagement\u00a0at least once a year through anonymous surveys in which people feel completely safe to speak their minds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But watch out. Don\u2019t fall into the common trap of letting these surveys devolve into questionnaires about the little stuff, such as the tastiness of the food in the company cafeteria or the availability of spaces in the parking lot. The most meaningful surveys probe how employees feel about the strategic direction of the company and the quality of their career opportunities. They\u00a0ask questions such as these: Do you believe the company has\u00a0goals that people fully grasp, accept, and support? Do you feel\u00a0the company cares about you and that you have been given\u00a0the opportunity to grow? Do you think that your everyday\u00a0work is connected to what company leaders say in speeches\u00a0and in the annual report? The best employee surveys are\u00a0getting at one question: Are we all on the same team here?<\/p>\n
Growth is the key to long-term viability, which is why\u00a0customer satisfaction is the second vital sign for general\u00a0managers. Again, this measurement can be obtained by\u00a0surveys, but those are rarely enough to give you the gritty\u00a0data you need for a real read of the situation. No, you need to\u00a0make visits. And don\u2019t just chat with your \u201cgood\u201d customers.<\/p>\n
See the ones whose orders are inconsistent or dropping\u2014the\u00a0ones your salespeople don\u2019t like to see themselves.<\/p>\n
Make these visits about learning. Find a dozen ways to ask:\u00a0\u201cWhat can we do better?\u201d And don\u2019t leave without finding out\u00a0if each customer would recommend your products or services.\u00a0That\u2019s the acid test of customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n
Finally, there\u2019s cash flow, which is valuable because it just\u00a0does not lie. All your other profit-and-loss numbers, like net\u00a0income, have some art to them. They\u2019ve been massaged\u00a0through the accounting process, which is filled with\u00a0assumptions. But free cash flow tells you the true condition\u00a0of the business. It gives you a sense of your maneuverability\u2014whether you can return cash to shareholders, pay down\u00a0debt, borrow more to grow faster, or any combination of\u00a0these options. Cash flow helps you understand and control\u00a0your destiny.<\/p>\n
Without doubt, there are lots of ways to measure the pulse\u00a0of a business. But if you have employee engagement,\u00a0customer satisfaction, and cash flow right, you can be sure your company is healthy and on the way to winning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every type of business, not to mention every type of manager, has a different set of vital statistics that really matter. For manufacturing people, it could be inventory turns, on-time delivery, and unit cost. For marketing people, it could be new\u00a0account closings, market share, and sales growth. For call center managers, it could be the… Three Ways to Take Your Company\u2019s Pulse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":1589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408,85,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","category-organization","category-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1587"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}