FEATURED ARTICLE:
Help, I Can’t Drive While I’m Looking at My Dashboard. What is the Problem with Putting Dashboards into Practice?
By Kim Schaefer, CPA
We went to the auto show when it came to our area. Two things struck me as we wandered around looking at all of the new models and concept cars-technology is amazing and people don’t want to do anything for themselves. It’s the dumbing down of society. We are so into multi-tasking we search for any way possible to make the tasks that we perform easier to do. Every feature in these cars was geared toward convenience because we are all trying to do more in less time.
Everything on the car is now automatic: from the power windows to the liftgate on SUVs. And the dashboard provides you with a tremendous amount of information. We have GPS to tell you where you are going and infrared displays to warn of obstacles along the way. We have innumerable warning indicators. It’s not enough to warn that we are low on fuel, the cars now tell you how many miles you can drive before you completely run out of gas (my personal favorite). They will also tell you your tires (including your spare) need air or that your gas cap has not been fastened tightly. Face it, cars are now virtually idiot proof.
IT folks like the concept of the dashboard. Lots of information, laid out in an intelligent manner, displayed automatically when you logon to the system. What could be better? The vast majority of the working population drives an automobile and they love the information their cars provide. Just like my car’s dashboard tells me about the health of my car, my company’s dashboard is supposed to tell me about the health of my company.
Okay, so what’s the problem? Here’s the scenario. I’m driving along in my car. My dashboard is flashing a warning at me. “Right rear tire pressure low-30 lbs.” Big deal, it’s not flat is it? It’s not even dangerously low. Quit bugging me, I’m trying to drive and talk on the phone and eat my lunch on my way to my next appointment. Another message, “Spare tire pressure low.” Now you’re really starting to annoy me. I don’t even need the spare right now. But, you might need it some day. Okay, but not right now. And so the story goes with corporate dashboards.
The problem is the dashboard is reporting health information, but it’s information that is not important to you right now. It’s forcing you to take your eyes and mind off the road and where you’re headed. In order to keep your car on the road, pointed in the right direction, and moving forward, you have to keep your eyes looking out the windshield, not looking at the dashboard. If you spend too much time looking at the dashboard and not enough time looking out the windshield at the road ahead, you are going to end up like the unfortunate soul in the picture above and eventually run off the road.
Unlike the fatal errors of WorldCom, Enron, and Tyco, many of the corporate disasters we read about today are accidental. Just look at the stock option errors at Apple Computer, McAfee, Inc. and CNET. With regulatory compliance environments continuing to become more complex, finance officers are faced with an ever-widening domain.
So what happens with corporate dashboards when they’re not aligned with strategy? They end up being cluttered with irrelevant data. Many times they have a functional bias based on finance when the finance officer is responsible for much more. And, since historical information is typically easy to retrieve, they’re loaded with it, when what they should really focus on, is leading indicators.
