This one is a compilation of some situations that have been happening in several companies I know very closely.
What happen here?
Mr. Finance Manager has been informing to his management that the sales have been raising 3% during last semester. Mr. Sales Director has been informing that consolidated sales have raised 5% during same period. Mr. Shipping Manager informs that his unit has raised 4% of units delivered. Mr. Production Director reports a rise of 5.5% of units during last year.
Now: Can you imagine a meeting among these employees?
Well, some aspects to keep in sight:
- Which is informed time period by Mr. Shipping Manager? Could Mr. Shipping Manager quickly inform the same time period that Mr. Sales Director or Mr. Finance Manager?
- What about Mr. Production Director? Could he quickly inform his half-year produced units’ percentage over units, or over value?
- Why the difference between Mr. Finance Manager and Mr. Sales Director? Are they talking about the same “Sales” subject?
Now, Mr. CEO needs to decide about an important investment to improve all company facilities, based in sales grow. But: Which is the real Sales rise? Does he have other facts to consult? What is happen with this numbers? Which is the real Sales Number? Or Numbers?
These situations have been presenting in any company of any size or type. The reader can choose any of these related scenarios or can tell us about some others. One important aspect for this topic is the fact of those situations can occur totally apart of the quality of operative or transaction systems.