Scoring Goals in the Business League
Roger Knocker • June 24, 2024
The 6 Universal Key Performance Areas and the KPIs that Every Team Needs.
I was invited by a CFO forum to speak about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The problem they identified was:
“It’s too complex! There are so many KPIs to choose from. There are Quality, Productivity (Quantity), Efficiency, and Timeliness KPIs. We have to deal with Risk and Capability metrics. There are leading and lagging KPIs, and people often confuse them. Plus, there are Financial and Non-Financial KPIs, and Strategic versus Operational KPIs.”
They asked me to simplify this for them and suggest no more than 5 KPIs that would help any business, department, or team to:
- Grow the business
- Increase efficiency, profitability, and cash flow
- Build sustainability
They also asked me to solve world hunger while I was at it, and if that wasn't possible, at least boil the ocean. I was relieved when they conceded and removed Antarctica from the scope.
I thought of some principles that would guide me to the right KPIs and came up with this acronym to make it QUICK:
- Quantifiable - No subjectivity, only data-driven.
- Uncomplicated - Simple to gather the data needed.
- Intuitive (for Practical) - Easy for people to understand in any business and any team.
- Customizable (for Agile) - Ability for the measurement to be adjusted slightly for the specific situation.
- KPIs - Key Performance Indicators.
After a few agonizing weeks of racking my brain to find just 5 KPIs, I finally gave up. I phoned the chairman of the forum and said, “I can’t narrow it down to just 5 KPIs, but I can get it down to 6. Am I still invited?”
Who did I write this for?
Although no one is excluded, through my personal experience in the finance industry, I narrowed down the list to positions and sectors that I believe can benefit from this guide:
This guideline is designed for:
- CFOs and CEOs that who need to streamline performance measurement and ensure that KPIs align with business plans and financial forecasts.
- Organizations whose performance management systems have become overly complex and are seeking a return to simplicity.
- Organizations that struggle to correlate bonuses with quantifiable data and end up distributing bonuses subjectively.
- Remuneration committees that rely on a flawed performance management system for their remuneration policies.
- Organizations with subjective, unmeasurable, slow, and manual KPIs.
- Organizations without proper KPIs that needing a starting point.
- Shareholders looking for personal KPIs for their leadership team.
Introduction to the Framework
The most common question we receive at KPI Management Solutions is, "I need KPIs for my business, but where do I start?" To address this, we've developed a framework using a football analogy as part of our workshop preparation.
In a football team, each position has a specific purpose, role, and responsibility.
In a football team, each position has a specific purpose, role, and responsibility.
When selecting KPIs for your business, you are much like a football manager choosing positions and players to achieve your goals (no pun intended).
Just as understanding the fundamentals of football can change the outcome of a game, focusing on Key Performance Areas (KPAs) can guide any company toward its objectives. KPAs are groupings of similar KPIs, which can be based on processes, business objectives, or strategic themes. Once you have identified your KPAs, it becomes easier to pinpoint specific KPIs that fall under these categories.
Let's break down the six universal KPAs through a football analogy, highlighting their importance in driving a business to success.
Just as understanding the fundamentals of football can change the outcome of a game, focusing on Key Performance Areas (KPAs) can guide any company toward its objectives. KPAs are groupings of similar KPIs, which can be based on processes, business objectives, or strategic themes. Once you have identified your KPAs, it becomes easier to pinpoint specific KPIs that fall under these categories.
Let's break down the six universal KPAs through a football analogy, highlighting their importance in driving a business to success.
These recommended KPAs highlight the 6 performance areas that every business unit or team need to dribble their way to the top:
The six KPAs can be cascaded throughout the organization down to an individual level. At least five of them would apply to every individual within the organization, sometimes in a form that is unique to their role.
In the remainder of this document, we will explain each KPA and why it is crucial. Once we understand the purpose of each KPA, we will offer suggestions for selecting one KPI to fit under each KPA.
While there could be millions of variations if you're starting out or trying to streamline your performance system, begin with our suggestions and tweak them to suit your business.
The suggestions are structured into three levels of complexity. Choose only one, depending on how mature your business is, how quickly you want to see results, and how much effort you want to invest in getting the scoreboard ticking:
We have also tagged each KPI to address one of the value drivers:
It's always risky to have a KPI that only addresses one value driver, as people will focus on that single aspect, potentially neglecting others. In a business, one type of value driver should be balanced with additional drivers to ensure a holistic approach.
Note: This article isn't suggesting that you shouldn't measure anything else. Our goal is to identify six possible KPIs that could be universally applicable.
A KPI is a key indicator that measures progress toward the desired state, reflecting where the business aims to be in the next three to five years.
- Profit
- Revenue Growth
- Customer Centricity
- Business Strategy
- Process
- Capability
The six KPAs can be cascaded throughout the organization down to an individual level. At least five of them would apply to every individual within the organization, sometimes in a form that is unique to their role.
In the remainder of this document, we will explain each KPA and why it is crucial. Once we understand the purpose of each KPA, we will offer suggestions for selecting one KPI to fit under each KPA.
While there could be millions of variations if you're starting out or trying to streamline your performance system, begin with our suggestions and tweak them to suit your business.
The suggestions are structured into three levels of complexity. Choose only one, depending on how mature your business is, how quickly you want to see results, and how much effort you want to invest in getting the scoreboard ticking:
- Easy KPIs - These are typically simple KPIs where the data is readily available in most organizations.
- Convenient KPIs - These may require a bit more effort and processes to collect the data but shouldn't be too taxing or take long to implement.
- Ideal KPIs - If you have the raw data and the time and skills to enrich it with good business logic, these will provide the best coverage, as they encompass the underlying processes and goals, leading to greater insights and improved performance.
We have also tagged each KPI to address one of the value drivers:
- �55358;�56647; Quality - measures the quality of outputs.
- �55357;�56520;Quantity - measures the volumes or productivity of outputs.
- ⏰ Time - measures lead times and due dates of deliverables.
- �55357;�56496;Efficiency - measure the financial or operational efficiencies of deliverables.
It's always risky to have a KPI that only addresses one value driver, as people will focus on that single aspect, potentially neglecting others. In a business, one type of value driver should be balanced with additional drivers to ensure a holistic approach.
Note: This article isn't suggesting that you shouldn't measure anything else. Our goal is to identify six possible KPIs that could be universally applicable.
A KPI is a key indicator that measures progress toward the desired state, reflecting where the business aims to be in the next three to five years.
The 6 Universal KPIs
1. Profit -
The Striker
The One Who Scores The Goals
In football
, the ultimate aim is scoring goals, with the striker's job being to score the majority of them. A team won't win the championship if it doesn't score goals. If a striker fails to score, the manager will soon need to replace them or try different tactics.
In business , profit is the primary goal of any for-profit organization. It's a straightforward indicator of your business performance. If you’re not making profits, you're not progressing. Profit can increase even when revenue is flat, as businesses can become bloated, and a focus on cost reduction and efficiencies can move the needle, helping the business thrive until revenue growth returns. Without sustainable profit, cash flow will dry up, and shareholders will replace the CEO, CFO, and the rest of the management team if profits decline or don't meet their potential. It's just a matter of time.
Here are some profit KPIs to track against desired targets, which will be defined as part of the reporting process. Specific targets are not included in this article.
In business , profit is the primary goal of any for-profit organization. It's a straightforward indicator of your business performance. If you’re not making profits, you're not progressing. Profit can increase even when revenue is flat, as businesses can become bloated, and a focus on cost reduction and efficiencies can move the needle, helping the business thrive until revenue growth returns. Without sustainable profit, cash flow will dry up, and shareholders will replace the CEO, CFO, and the rest of the management team if profits decline or don't meet their potential. It's just a matter of time.
Here are some profit KPIs to track against desired targets, which will be defined as part of the reporting process. Specific targets are not included in this article.
Pick A KPI:
Easy
Convenient
Ideal
2. Revenue Growth - The Forward or Goal Assist.
The One Who Sets Up the Goals
Revenue Growth Paves the Way to Profit," says Roger Knocker, CEO of KPI Management Solutions.
In football , the player who sets up the goals is often as esteemed as the player who scores. A well-executed assist can make it easy for the striker to score. Often, the hard work is done by the player providing the assist.
In business, the sales teams and rainmakers are the heroes, and rightly so. However, unless they set up the deals correctly—with proper margins and delivery terms—the strikers will miss the goal every time, resulting in losses to the bottom line. It's crucial to get the top line working effectively. It's not just about volume, the quality of the gross profits is even more critical.
In football , the player who sets up the goals is often as esteemed as the player who scores. A well-executed assist can make it easy for the striker to score. Often, the hard work is done by the player providing the assist.
In business, the sales teams and rainmakers are the heroes, and rightly so. However, unless they set up the deals correctly—with proper margins and delivery terms—the strikers will miss the goal every time, resulting in losses to the bottom line. It's crucial to get the top line working effectively. It's not just about volume, the quality of the gross profits is even more critical.
Pick A KPI:
Easy
Convenient
Ideal
3. Customer Centricity - The Winger
The one that creates the required attacking momentum
In football
, the winger is crucial for moving the game forward toward the goals. They pass the ball to the striker or the goal assist to achieve a favourable result. Wingers are fast, agile, and find ways to attack. Their work may seem monotonous, but it suddenly converts into opportunities for the forwards to capitalize on.
In business , client centricity and satisfaction play a similar role, creating loyal clients who are easier and more profitable to sell to than new customers. This is mainly executed by the client services team and account managers, who are vital for client retention, upselling, cross-selling, and new customer acquisitions.
Client centricity can either directly contribute to profit or boost revenue growth. Great service and relationships make it easier to achieve business goals. These teams interact daily with clients, providing excellent service and maintaining strong client engagement and relationships.
In business , client centricity and satisfaction play a similar role, creating loyal clients who are easier and more profitable to sell to than new customers. This is mainly executed by the client services team and account managers, who are vital for client retention, upselling, cross-selling, and new customer acquisitions.
Client centricity can either directly contribute to profit or boost revenue growth. Great service and relationships make it easier to achieve business goals. These teams interact daily with clients, providing excellent service and maintaining strong client engagement and relationships.
Pick A KPI
Easy
Convenient
Ideal
4. Strategy -
The Midfielder
This is the Thinking Player who is sets-up the Structure for Success.
In Football,
they are key to stealing the ball, taking control of possession, and distributing the ball. They help transition play, initiate counterattacks, and support the build-up towards the goals.
In business, the strategy sets the direction to address opportunities for both the top line and the bottom line. It also helps the business prepare for future success by building or improving capabilities from which future successes will flow. Strategy is mostly executed through strategic programs and projects that must be aligned. The problem with projects is that they often fail because they:
Project success is a leading KPI for future business operations.
It is one of the most significant leading KPIs, yet many organizations fail to execute strategic projects and don’t invest the necessary time, money, and resources.
In recent years, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) have become very popular, following the success of Google (read "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr) and other tech companies using this approach.
OKRs have their own philosophy, and businesses should ensure they understand the system rather than picking and choosing convenient parts. That said, it’s super simple and has the following characteristics:
In business, the strategy sets the direction to address opportunities for both the top line and the bottom line. It also helps the business prepare for future success by building or improving capabilities from which future successes will flow. Strategy is mostly executed through strategic programs and projects that must be aligned. The problem with projects is that they often fail because they:
- Weren’t set up correctly with the right goals and deliverables, reasonable timelines, and resources.
- Were not managed professionally, or
- Resource constraints become a reality as people are caught in business-as-usual activities or other competing projects.
Project success is a leading KPI for future business operations.
It is one of the most significant leading KPIs, yet many organizations fail to execute strategic projects and don’t invest the necessary time, money, and resources.
In recent years, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) have become very popular, following the success of Google (read "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr) and other tech companies using this approach.
OKRs have their own philosophy, and businesses should ensure they understand the system rather than picking and choosing convenient parts. That said, it’s super simple and has the following characteristics:
- It’s focused on one quarter at a time.
- Goals are mostly stretch goals. Reaching 70% of objectives is considered good. Consistently reaching 100% of objectives is considered negative, as it means the team isn’t stretching themselves.
- OKRs are perfect for building capabilities, i.e., working “on the business” rather than “in the business.”
- It’s a transparent approach, so everyone can see everyone else’s OKRs (performance).
- Requires weekly check-ins.
- Can be driven top-down, bottom-up, or sideways.
- Ideal for environments characterized by consistent change, high innovation, or the need for very specific results, such as drastic cost-cutting within a quarter.
- The success or failure of OKRs shouldn’t be linked to incentives.
Pick A KPI
Easy
Convenient
Ideal
5. Process - The Defence
This is the player that keeps it all together and plays hand in hand with The Winger
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear,
Atomic Habits
In football,
defenders are the backbone of a team's defence, providing stability, resilience, and security to ensure the team's success on the field. They don’t panic; they execute their processes according to the game plan, ensuring quality, consistency, steady output, controls, and risk mitigation against the opposition.
In business, systems and processes are the foundation that run the business and determines the products and services delivered to customers. Processes influence the profits for shareholders. Your customers experience the sum total of your processes, delivered through your systems and people. If your processes don’t work, your customers will feel it, whether they pinpoint it or not.
Processes should be focused on delivering value to the customer in terms of price/cost, quality, and timeliness. Customers include internal customers. If you’re in a cost centre or service area, your customer will often be a manager in a downstream team. Treat them as customers.
Processes are best when they’re documented, repeatable, and standardized across the organization, producing clean, reliable data that can be converted into metrics and KPIs. If they don’t, consider reimplementing your processes through a strategically managed project. Once properly implemented, processes should produce data that enables the measurement of productivity, quality, and due-date performance. Additionally, processes will help measure controls and mitigate operational risks.
Process and customer centricity go hand in hand.
In different industries, there are many variations of metrics, but typically your customers will be looking for three key things:
Ensuring that your processes are reliable is the key to success.
In business, systems and processes are the foundation that run the business and determines the products and services delivered to customers. Processes influence the profits for shareholders. Your customers experience the sum total of your processes, delivered through your systems and people. If your processes don’t work, your customers will feel it, whether they pinpoint it or not.
Processes should be focused on delivering value to the customer in terms of price/cost, quality, and timeliness. Customers include internal customers. If you’re in a cost centre or service area, your customer will often be a manager in a downstream team. Treat them as customers.
Processes are best when they’re documented, repeatable, and standardized across the organization, producing clean, reliable data that can be converted into metrics and KPIs. If they don’t, consider reimplementing your processes through a strategically managed project. Once properly implemented, processes should produce data that enables the measurement of productivity, quality, and due-date performance. Additionally, processes will help measure controls and mitigate operational risks.
Process and customer centricity go hand in hand.
In different industries, there are many variations of metrics, but typically your customers will be looking for three key things:
- Price/Cost: Are your products or services priced competitively?
- Quality: Are your products or services meeting the quality standards expected by your customers?
- Timeliness: Are your products or services delivered on time or by the committed due date?
Ensuring that your processes are reliable is the key to success.
Pick A KPI
Easy
Convenient
Ideal
6. Capability - The Goal Keeper
The Last Line of Defense and the Most Fundamental Position Needed to Survive
In football,
the goalkeeper is the last line of defence. Without a goalkeeper, the goals are open, and the team will most likely never win a match. The opposition will exploit this weakness. The team can survive and the game can continue without any other position, but not this one.
In business, skilled resources are fundamental to starting, running, and scaling a business. Without the right skills, the business will it's score own goals time and time again, regardless of the sophistication of the IT systems. Even in a highly automated business, skills are needed. For instance, in an automated business, skills such as the capability to program, monitor, and manage bots are essential. Ultimately, it comes back to at least one human with the required level of skills.
Continuous learning and investment in skills and capabilities lay the foundation for success. Skills development is a never-ending task. We call this Capability, which is a combination of an individual’s education, experience, training, technical skills, soft skills, and track record.
Investing in capability ensures that your team can handle challenges, innovate, and maintain the smooth operation of your business. This ongoing investment in skills and capabilities is essential for long-term success and resilience in any industry.
In business, skilled resources are fundamental to starting, running, and scaling a business. Without the right skills, the business will it's score own goals time and time again, regardless of the sophistication of the IT systems. Even in a highly automated business, skills are needed. For instance, in an automated business, skills such as the capability to program, monitor, and manage bots are essential. Ultimately, it comes back to at least one human with the required level of skills.
Continuous learning and investment in skills and capabilities lay the foundation for success. Skills development is a never-ending task. We call this Capability, which is a combination of an individual’s education, experience, training, technical skills, soft skills, and track record.
Investing in capability ensures that your team can handle challenges, innovate, and maintain the smooth operation of your business. This ongoing investment in skills and capabilities is essential for long-term success and resilience in any industry.
Pick your KPI:
Easy
Convenient
Ideal
Conclusion
Just as a football team needs a balanced approach, focusing on both offence and defence, attracting and retaining talent, and building a loyal fan base, businesses must monitor these six Key Performance Areas to navigate their way to success.
Each KPI represents a critical piece of the game, and mastering them can help any business, regardless of the industry, not just play the game but win it. So, lace up your boots, set your sights on these metrics, and prepare to take your business to the championship and enhance your overall performance.
Each KPI represents a critical piece of the game, and mastering them can help any business, regardless of the industry, not just play the game but win it. So, lace up your boots, set your sights on these metrics, and prepare to take your business to the championship and enhance your overall performance.
Welcome to the FP&AI Podcast, where finance meets the future. In this episode, Roger is joined once again by Anthony and Donovan to dive into one of the most critical pillars of a successful finance function: planning. Stay tuned for the next episode, where the discussion moves to collaboration and business partnering in finance. Conversation Highlights: [0:00] Roger welcomes listeners back and recaps the previous episode on setting 3–5 year strategic objectives. He now moves on to the internal perspective of the balanced scorecard, asking: Which processes must finance excel at to satisfy stakeholders? [1:30] Roger notes that while Deloitte’s shareholder value framework lists hundreds of options, most internal objectives can be grouped into a few big themes: planning, quality, collaboration, speed, efficiency, innovation, and governance. [3:00] Anthony emphasizes the importance of planning, analysis, and reporting in finance. He highlights accuracy, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, and well-defined processes across cycles such as month-end, year-end, and budgeting. Clear roles, timelines, and responsibilities are critical for smooth execution. [6:00] They discuss practical planning rhythms. Processes should be reviewed at the start of cycles (e.g., January year-end planning), with regular team meetings—weekly or daily as needed—to monitor progress and address issues. Donovan adds that planning should start before year-end, often as early as mid-December. [9:00] The conversation shifts to dependencies on other departments during cycles like budgeting. Since other teams may not prioritize finance timelines, communication and early engagement are vital. Finance should build these requirements into processes and send reminders to ensure collaboration. [12:00] Roger stresses that budgeting must be framed as a business-wide responsibility , not just a finance deliverable. Departments should take ownership and accountability for their inputs, with finance facilitating and translating commitments into value. [16:00] Examples from IT planning illustrate how continuous engagement with business units avoids last-minute pressure. Finance should adopt similar practices, using ongoing communication and relationship management to integrate planning into everyday operations. [19:00] The concept of finance business partners is introduced. These roles embed in operations, bridging the gap between finance and other departments. They improve collaboration, ensure timely information flow, and enhance the quality of reporting—though organizations often fail to measure the ROI of these roles. [23:00] Roger returns to the importance of early communication and budget guidelines , which help divisions prepare and align. Effective planning should include communication checkpoints and reminders across cycles. [26:00] He adds that planning applies beyond finance—HR, IT, marketing, and all business processes should start with planning. Poor follow-through on insights can leave “money on the table,” highlighting the value of business partners in ensuring opportunities are realized. [28:00] As the podcast wraps up, Donovan stresses the quality and speed of planning , not just the act itself. Standardization and automation can improve efficiency. Anthony adds that planning must be continuous and iterative —even a bad plan provides useful feedback for replanning. [31:00] Roger closes by emphasizing that planning is central to finance and business success. Whether strategic or operational, good planning creates clarity, drives collaboration, and enables long-term value creation.
I’ve built an activity-based costing system. For my own group of companies. It works. The logic works. The reports work. The numbers run beautifully. Except for one thing. The data. The master data isn’t quite right. Not wrong. Just... inconsistent. So we start investigating. We doubt the results. We trace back through layers of transactions to find the flaw. Hours go by. Not because the tool is broken. Because the foundations were never right in the first place. And here’s the bigger problem. The real problem. Our trial balance and our financial statements? They don’t reflect the real business. At all. Even though we’ve done everything right. Dedicated finance team? Check. Excellent outsourced accountants? Check. Senior chartered accountants with carte blanche to "sort it all out"? Check, check, and check. We have clean audits. We're compliant. We tick every box. And yet... The insights we get? High-level. Irrelevant. They don’t help our managers. They don’t help our pricing. They don’t help us decide what to stop doing. Meanwhile, finance is pushing debits and credits into the general ledger at a furious pace. If they were paid per journal, they’d all be millionaires by now. And when those journals land? We look at the information. And it helps us squat. Nothing. No insights. Just questions. No answers. No decisions. Just a few more tasks to investigate what’s going on. Are the entries complete? Are they valid? Are they even useful to anyone outside of finance? Because here’s the truth most people won’t say out loud: Finance doesn’t understand the business. They process hundreds of journals efficiently. Fast. Neat. Organised. But the entries are wrong. Allocated to the wrong products. The wrong services. The wrong lines of business. Calculated on the wrong ratios. Based on assumptions that no one in operations would agree with. So when decisions are made? They’re based on fiction. Or worse - on “efficiently processed” fiction. And nobody sees it. Except business. They feel it. They just don’t have the time to audit finance’s work. Why should they? Isn’t that what we pay Finance to do? Because financial systems are built for someone else. For SARS. For the taxman. For the auditor. Not for the operator. Not for the person running the business. Not for the one asking, "Where are we actually making money?" And here’s the part that really gets me. We are master data junkies. We pride ourselves in clean, structured, standardised data. We obsess over naming conventions, hierarchies, mappings. So if we're struggling? What about the companies who don’t care? Who hire people who don’t care? Who don’t even know what master data means? What chance do they have? As a qualified accountant, I deeply want the financials to be right and adding value - all at the same time. I tell everyone I’m an accountant. I love playing for the winning team. Who doesn’t? I want our sweat to generate the numbers and tick all the boxes (I’m all for that). But at exactly the same time, I want them to add business value. Win/win. Finance and Business, joined at the hip. Partners. Winning together. Who wouldn’t want that? So we end up with financials that are easy to print. Easy to submit. Easy to tick off. But useless to run a business. What would it look like... ...if we rebuilt financial systems from scratch? Not for compliance. But for clarity? That’s what I’m working on. And it’s harder than it sounds. But it’s possible. And it’s necessary.
