The Business Excellence Edition of Performance Magazine explores actionable strategies and insights for driving continuous improvement as organizations strive to evolve from good to great and ultimately achieve excellence. This edition presents how leading organizations meet high standards in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and workforce development, offering a comprehensive view of what it takes to excel in a competitive business landscape.

A series of expert interviews in this edition sheds light on the experiences of industry leaders from diverse fields, addressing questions on breakthrough strategies, aligning goals, and the evolving landscape of performance management. Their insights show how sectors can improve their adaptability in the face of market fluctuations and integrate advanced metrics to maintain a competitive edge.

With real-world examples, Performance Magazine offers practical guidance on achieving sustained business results. Success stories illustrate how organizations have undergone performance management system maturity assessments, showcasing their approaches to staying agile, making data-driven decisions, and cultivating a culture of continuous improvement. Here are some of the highlights:

• Cover Story: “Closing the Strategy-Execution Gap: A Fundamental Step for Business Excellence” by Cristina Mihăiloaie
• In-Depth: “From Compliance to Excellence: The Role of Maturity Models” by Bori Péntek
• In-Depth: “Redefining Leadership for a Complex World: Leading Organizational Culture Transformation and Maturity” by Andra-Teodora Gorski 
• Ask Our Experts: “How crucial do you perceive leadership’s role in fostering a culture of performance excellence within an organization?” by Muhammad Ali Moustafa

A top-notch resource for executives, managers, and professionals striving for sustainable growth, Performance Magazine Issue No. 31 – Business Excellence Edition can be downloaded digitally for free on the TKI Marketplace or purchased in print on Amazon.

Stay tuned for more updates on the release by following The KPI Institute’s LinkedIn page.

On October 15th, 2024, The KPI Institute hosted an exclusive webinar titled “Navigating the Landscape of Strategy Planning and Execution in the Age of Transformation,” which brought together industry leaders and professionals for an insightful discussion on the latest trends in strategy management.

During the session, The KPI Institute unveiled key findings from the State of Strategy Management Practice Report 2024, focusing on the unique challenges and opportunities faced by organizations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The webinar provided an in-depth look at the evolving landscape of business planning, performance management systems, and the execution of strategic initiatives, which offer valuable insights for organizations looking to navigate the complexities of transformation in today’s dynamic business environment.

The session featured expert speakers from The KPI Institute and Systaems:

Cristina Mihăiloaie is a Strategy and Performance Management Expert and Chief Operating Officer at The KPI Institute. Her professional background centers on research, product development, and knowledge sharing within strategy and performance management. Over the past 12 years, she has played a key role in establishing best practices and standards for utilizing and maximizing key performance indicators (KPIs) in organizations disseminated through research publications, academic articles, and educational programs.

Bori Péntek is a Management Consultant at Systaems who specializes in organizational development and human resource management. She assists businesses in aligning their strategies, processes, and practices with their core values, prioritizing human and social well-being. With a background in recruitment, human resources, and operations management across various sectors, including sustainable construction, research, and education. She is an Associate Lecturer at Babes Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Webinar highlights

The webinar’s agenda centered on the key dilemmas organizations face in strategy planning, performance management, and execution, providing valuable insights into the challenges that often  hinder effective strategy implementation.

Dilemma 01: Deliberate vs. Emergent Strategic Planning. The State of Strategy Management Practice – 2024 MENA Region report indicates that 76% of professionals claim to have formal and regular strategy planning and 56% of respondents review strategy annually or every 3 years. Given these statistics and Cristina’s experience as an advisor, she pointed out that the predominant practice in the MENA region is Deliberate Strategy Planning. Further to the discussion, Bori shared her perspective on why Deliberate Strategy Planning is complicated to achieve success, “Mostly it [Deliberate Strategy Planning] offers an illusion of stability that it is not there anymore in the external or internal environment. A lot of things have to work very well for the deliberate strategy to work.”

Dilemma 02: Balanced Scorecard System vs. Objectives and Key Results Frameworks. Since common challenges in working with KPIs for MENA organizations imply difficulties in selecting relevant KPIs, to ensure alignment and collect data, the discussion between our experts led to questioning if a particular framework is better suited to address these challenges. Bori outlined, “Irrespective of whether you use Balanced Scorecard (BSC) or Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), you’re going to have these challenges. It’s not about selecting one system and just going along with it. It’s about leveraging the strength of each system by thinking wisely about where they can be used.”

Dilemma 03: Success vs. Failure in Strategy Execution. Insights from the State of Strategy Management Practice – 2024 MENA Region report show that most respondents (42%) listed ineffective cross-functional collaboration as the top reason for strategy failure. It is followed by a lack of leadership support (40%), slow decision-making and approval 33%), and insufficient resources for projects to succeed (33%). 

To address cross-functional collaboration, Cristina advised nurturing the right “rituals:” “Procedures become quickly obsolete, but rituals are what we do and how we do it, are the unwritten rules that govern the workplace. It’s not necessarily about the work procedure, it is more about how people come together and  get things done.” She added that the rituals we want to build are to create multidisciplinary teams rather than work in silos, to have regular performance meetings and use KPIs to understand the business better, to challenge ourselves constructively, and to promote transparency and collaboration in problem-solving.

The webinar ended with a question-and-answer session where the featured speakers addressed questions about the link between strategy and culture, underestimated factors for strategy execution success, the risk of not aligning KPIs across the organization and many more. An extended Q&A document is currently being prepared for release with extremely interesting perspectives.

From key findings in the State of Strategy Management Practice Report 2024 to practical advice on overcoming obstacles in strategy management, the webinar provided valuable takeaways for organizations looking to stay ahead in today’s fast-paced business environment.

If you missed the live session, watch the full video of the webinar on The KPI Institute’s official YouTube channel. Click here to watch the webinar now!

Utilities such as electricity, natural gas, and water and sewage services are the backbone of modern society, supporting everything from basic daily activities to critical infrastructure. Without these essential services, communities would struggle to function, and economies would come to a halt. 

In the latest release of the Top 25 KPIs report series, The KPI Institute dives into the critical key performance indicators (KPIs) essential for managing vital utility services. As the demand for efficient and sustainable service delivery continues to rise, understanding and leveraging the right KPIs is more important than ever. 

The Top 25 KPIs 2024 report series is an extensive collection of the 25 most commonly utilized KPIs from various industries and functional areas. The KPIs are curated based on viewership data from smartKPIs.com between January 2023 and April 2024, this series provides a snapshot of the latest trends in performance measurement.

Inside the report, readers can find a comprehensive analysis of the Performance Measurement Concept Framework, the most recent data on KPI challenges and usage contexts, and 10 strategies for successful KPI implementation. Moreover, each KPI featured has been thoroughly revised through extensive research to ensure that the information accurately captures the latest trends and changes in the evolving business environment. The 2024 edition also offers an enhanced documentation template that is optimized to present the most pertinent details about each KPI.

Whether readers are looking to enhance operational efficiency, reduce downtime, or deliver superior customer satisfaction, the Top 25 KPIs for utilities provide a comprehensive framework for driving performance improvements in this dynamic industry. In each report, let’s take a quick look at the top five KPIs for water and sewage, electricity, and natural gas.

Top 5 Water and Sewage KPIs 

1. # Wastewater collected and treated –  measures the total volume of wastewater collected and treated in the reporting period
2. # Water Quality Index – measures the quality of water based on five parameters – Temperature, Biological Oxygen Demand, Total Suspended Solids, Dissolved Oxygen, and Conductivity
3. # Days of treatment plant operation below standards – measures the number of days during which the water treatment plant operates below established performance standards
4. # Time to repair hydrants – measures the average time taken to repair a broken or inoperative hydrant
5.  % Non-revenue water (NRW) –  measures the percentage of water that enters the distribution system but is lost before reaching customers and not billed, out of the volume of water supplied

Learn more about the practical applications of the indicators above, as well as the other top 20 KPIs for the water and sewage sector, grab a copy of the Top 25 Water and Sewage KPIs – 2024 Edition report. It is available for digital purchase via the TKI Marketplace and as a physical copy on Amazon.

Top 5 Electricity KPIs

1.  # System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) –  measures the average number of electricity system interruptions per customer during the reporting period
2.  # Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) – measures the average duration of electricity supply interruptions experienced by customers during the reporting period
3. # Power plant load factor –  measures the ratio of the average load to the peak load in the reporting period
4. # System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) – measures the average duration of electricity supply interruptions per customer, during the reporting period
5. $ Transmission line maintenance cost per network length –  measures the average expenditures incurred with the maintenance of transmission lines relative to the length of the network

Explore more insights about the top 5 Electricity KPIs and other 20 indicators by purchasing the digital copy of the Top 25 Electricity KPIs – 2024 Edition, visit TKI Marketplace. Furthermore, a physical copy can be ordered via Amazon.

Top 5 Natural Gas KPIs

1. # Unplanned pipeline unavailability –  measures the duration, in hours, that a pipeline is not operational for transporting gas due to unplanned circumstances
2. # Customers affected by repeated unplanned supply interruption – measures the number of customers impacted by multiple instances of unplanned supply interruption in the reporting
3. # Pipeline subjected to leak surveys (km) – measures the length, in kilometers, of the gas pipeline network that was subjected to leak detection surveys in the reporting period
4. # Gas supply planned interruptions duration – measures the average duration, in minutes, of planned gas supply interruptions experienced by customers in the reporting period
5.  # Gas pipeline temperature excursions – measures the number of gas pipeline temperature excursions recorded during  a specified reporting period

Gain a deeper understanding of the practical use of the top 5 KPIs above and discover the other 20 Natural Gas KPIs. Download a digital copy of the Top 25 Natural Gas KPIs – 2024 Edition via TKI Marketplace or purchase another copy via Amazon.

As the demand for reliable, sustainable services continues to grow, understanding how to optimize utility operations is more critical than ever. Let the Top 25 KPIs 2024 report series from The KPI Institute serve as your guide in selecting the most critical KPIs and tracking your organization’s progress towards its strategic goals.