Episode 133

What Accountants Need to Know Know About KPIs

Bernie Smith coaches businesses to develop meaningful KPIs and present their management information in the clearest possible way to support good decision making. Frustrated by the random way in which performance measures are often chosen and implemented, Bernie set up Made to Measure KPIs in 2007. He has since authored author of 19 KPI books to share simple, structured and repeatable ways to create KPIs that normal humans could design and use to improve businesses. Selected shownotes:

  • How the book 'KPI Checklists' came about and why you should read it
  • How the right business and financial information is vital to drive improved performance
  • The need for linking measures, targets and goals to strategic objectives using KPIs or key performance indicators
  • A definition of KPIs that everyone can relate to which centres around measuring things that count and that you care about
  • The different types of KPIs, particularly leading (activity-based) and lagging (outcome-based) measurements
  • How the ROKS method (Results Oriented KPI System) works with an illustration on how you choose a tool to do a DIY job
  • What makes some KPIs more useful and relevant than others
  • The joys and drawbacks of visual dashboards, plus the ideal number of KPIs to have on them
  • How accountants are ideally places to capitalise on KPIs because of the amount and quality of data they can access
  • How to measure and how often to measure the data that drive your KPIs
  • The common fears and challenges accountants have with embracing KPIs in their firms and client offerings
  • How KPIs link to incentives, rewards and motivations in accounting firms
  • Best practice steps to start working with KPIs and how to drive a KPI oriented culture in an accounting firm
  • How accountants can effectively use KPIs to add value and advisory services to their clients
  • Why fact-based decision making vz guesswork is at the heart of KPI thinking.

Bernie Smith on the Accounting Influencers podcast with BD Academy founder Rob Brown

Using the experience (and scars) of working with a huge variety of organisations over his consulting career, spanning banking (HSBC, Credit Suisse, UBS), aerospace (Airbus, AirTanker, Leonardo), and even cheesemaking, Bernie has boiled that experience down into simple, sensible and practical advice on performance measurement. When not working, Bernie is a keen hill walker, photographer and technology enthusiast. At any given point he has at least half a dozen over-ambitious and incomplete technology projects on the go. Contact him here:

Website and blog

LinkedIn

 

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Accounting Voices
Accounting Voices is a senior conversation platform for accounting firm leaders navigating AI, private equity, consolidation, talent pressure and relevance.

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About your host

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Rob Brown

Rob Brown is the founder and host of the Accounting Voices Podcast, the flagship solo show of the Accounting Voices Network. Each episode offers sharp analysis and commentary on the trends, ideas and people shaping the global accounting profession.

Through this Accounting Voices Podcast, Rob helps accounting firm leaders, decision makers and professionals stay relevant and make sense of disruption in areas like AI, automation, M&A, private equity and soft skills beyond the tech. His perspective blends clarity, insight and curiosity, making complex issues relevant and practical for professionals and decision makers across accounting and finance.

He also leads two monthly panel shows, Accounting M&A and Accounting AI, which bring together senior voices to explore consolidation, strategy and the impact of technology on firms and people.

Rob is the author of the bestselling book Build Your Reputation (Wiley) and a TEDx speaker whose talk The Personal Brand of You has more than 400,000 views. Over his career he has hosted and moderated more than 1,000 conversations with accounting and fintech leaders worldwide.

Based in Nottingham UK, Rob is a stroke survivor living with epilepsy, a black belt in kickboxing, a decent chess player and an average player of four musical instruments.