PMSI has co-authored 'The Performance Manager' commissioned by Cognos.

The Performance Manager continues an exploration that began more than ten years ago with the publication of The Multidimensional Manager. Both books examine the partnership between decision-makers in companies worldwide and the people who provide them with better information to drive better decisions.

Decision-makers need integrated information at their fingertips to focus on winning, rather than the distraction of gathering information. This requires a system to deliver performance management information whenever and wherever they require it. Knowing what’s happened and why it happened, aligning this knowledge with objectives, and articulating a plan to establish a forward view of your business—these are the skills of a performance manager.

Organizations successfully engaging with performance management were able to align resources, opportunities, and execution to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Alignment requires a unifying map and a common language.

This book provides a framework to design information sweet spots that will drive your business performance. The right information at the right time can make all managers better.

Three fundamental requirements enable this alignment and successful performance management:

Information Sweet Spots
The issue is not getting more data—people are drowning in data—the issue is getting the right information. The key is to design, group, and enrich data into information sweet spots. Information sweet spots help managers make the best revenue growth decisions, the best expense management decisions, the best financial management decisions, and the best decisions for long-term asset management.

Managers Perform Within Collaborative Decision-Making Cycles
Decision-makers need to achieve their objectives in the context of the company’s objectives. Information and strategy must be communicated in multiple directions, not just one way. Information sweet spots link executive management and line management. They connect decision makers throughout the organization and let them understand, manage, and improve the business.

Integrated Decision-Making Functionality in Different User Modes
Each decision is a process rather than an event. Once you see what has happened, you may need to analyze it to understand why it happened. You must put the occurrence in context to see trends common to other parts of the business, geographies, product lines and, most important, objectives. From there, you can see the way forward and plan the future of the business.