In some kinds of more traditional businesses the finance department tends to swallow as much data as is thrown at it but only outputs small, measured and curated amounts of insights periodically: “Here’s revenue vs target in the last quarter”. These are undoubtedly essential for proper business management, But periodic reports also mean it can be too late for the business to respond. It’s like driving by looking only in the rear-view mirror. Looking at what’s behind isn’t going to let you spot a sudden bend in the road!
Essentially, the highly competitive and evolved business environment of today requires businesses to have proactive, indicative business metrics. Combined with more traditional metrics, these mean businesses have invaluable and complete insight in order to evaluate performance. Proactive, indicative business metrics are found across most successful businesses–and especially amongst C-suite employees. These people know that the benefits are proven.