Search results for ""Author Dr Steve Morlidge""

The Littlle Book of Beyond Budgeting is to help readers make informed choices about the way that they run their businesses, rather than blindly copying what they have learned by rote from their predecessors. This book aims to fill these gaps in awareness and understanding by answering the question ‘what is Beyond Budgeting?’ in a clear and succinct way.

Read more less

In this provocative yet practical guidebook Steve Morlidge demonstrates why the approach and methods of performance reporting that all information professionals have been taught fails, and what we need to do differently to help us make sense of the dynamic, complex and data rich world in which we now live and work. Reporting on performance should not be treated as worthy but dull, requiring no more than routine comparisons of actual against targets. This traditional approach is based on the false premise organisations can be managed as if they were a simple mechanical system operating in a predictable environment. And the methods associated with it, such as variance analyses and data tables that are used to measure and communicate performance, are completely inadequate. Instead, Morlidge argues performance reporting should be reconceived as an act of perception conducted on behalf of the organisation, helping to make sense of the sensory inputs (data) that it has at its disposal. And to do so effectively performance reporters need to learn from and exploit the strengths of our own brains, compensate for its weaknesses and communicate in a way that makes it easy for their audience’s brains to assimilate. Drawing on the latest insights from cognitive science in this book you will learn: • how to bring a dynamic perspective into performance reporting • how to deploy a set of simple tools to help speared the signal from the noise inherent in large data sets and to make sound inferences • how to set goals intelligently • about the grammar of data visualization and how use it to design powerful and simple reports In this way information professionals are uniquely charged with the responsibility for creating the shared consciousness that is a prerequisite for organisations to effectively respond and adapt to their environments.

Read more less

This is a guidebook about short term Operational Forecasting – the sort that is done to determine how much product you need to source or how many people you need to draft in to meet customer demand. It is organized under 5 headings: 1. The purpose of operational forecasting 2. Understanding demand 3. Forecasting methods 4. Understanding forecast performance 5. Managing forecast performance. The first two sections and part of section three are essential reading for anyone involved in or responsible for operational forecasting. The rest of the book is most helpful for practitioners. The aim is to produce something that provides a useful introduction to operational forecasting for both practitioners and their bosses by filling in the gap that lies between a naïve common sense understanding of short term forecasting and the complex technicalities of mathematical forecasting techniques. The authors background as a self-taught business orientated forecasting nerd with limited mathematical expertise qualifies who tell it the way it is makes him well qualified to fill this gap. The book has been designed to be simple but not simplistic, using short and to the point learning points supported by clear graphics. It is technically sound but also highly practical. The hope is that it will help create a common language to help people talk intelligently about forecasting and help stop people doing dumb stuff – which is where most of the potential for improvement lies. It will also help people design good forecast processes and informed software purchasing decisions. In doing so it will help people realize that forecasting is important and that investing in people as well as software will generate enormous benefits for many businesses.

Read more less