Signal 3 — Steering
Steering: deciding with clear figures.
The figures exist, but they're scattered between the accountant, a spreadsheet and the owner's memory. So decisions get made on intuition, and problems are discovered too late. Steering isn't about piling up indicators: it's about choosing five and looking at them every month.
Symptoms
The signals you probably recognise.
- Figures arrive too late, often several months after the fact.
- Every department has its own reports, and they don't tell the same story.
- Important decisions are made on gut feeling, for lack of reliable data.
- No one can say in one minute whether the past month was good or not.
- Targets exist, but nothing actually measures their progress.
Impact
What it really costs.
The absence of steering doesn't show up in the accounts: it's paid for in late decisions, projects launched without priority, and teams moving forward without knowing what matters.
are enough to steer a small or mid-sized business, provided they are kept up.
of performance review: the minimum ritual to stay on course.
to have an operational, populated dashboard.
Our approach
Four steps, a course you can hold.
- 1
Framing
Clarifying your 12-month objectives and the decisions you need to be able to make every month.
- 2
Data-driven diagnosis
Inventory of available data, its reliability and the blind spots to fill.
- 3
90-day plan
Selecting indicators, building the dashboard and setting up review rituals.
- 4
Guided implementation
Facilitating the first monthly reviews until the ritual holds without us.
Deliverables
What you actually get.
Documents you can use from the following week, not a report gathering dust in a drawer.
- A one-page dashboard with your key indicators.
- The definition and source of each indicator, to avoid pointless debates.
- A monthly review ritual, with an agenda and a decision format.
- Simple alerts on cash flow, margin and sales activity.
- A 90-day plan linking each objective to a measurable indicator.
To go further
Related programmes.
Frequently asked questions
What business owners ask us.
- No. A well-built spreadsheet is enough for most small and mid-sized businesses. The tool only becomes a topic once data volume or the number of contributors justifies it.
- Five to seven at most at owner level. Beyond that, no one looks at them anymore. Detailed indicators stay at the operational manager level.
- One identified person within the company, with a routine of a few dozen minutes a month. We design the setup so it holds without depending on us.
A first 60-minute conversation, no strings attached.
We start from your real situation, identify the two or three levers that matter, and you leave with a clear view of what comes next.