Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 9

Strategic Dashboards in Action

David Hsiao, the director of quality data infrastructure at Cisco, just received an automated “Red Alert” e-mail message, indicating that there has been a spike in product returns from one of Cisco’s top 250 customers. Hsiao knows that product returns directly correlate with customer satisfaction, which Cisco measures continuously via customer surveys. He also knows that a 10 percent drop in customer satisfaction can decrease Cisco’s revenues from that customer by 40 percent in just one quarter. Thus, he must take swift action.

Hsiao immediately calls the customer’s account manager, who also received the Red Alert. Together, they create a “Tiger team”—an ad hoc, cross-functional group of individuals who work to address a specific process, measurement, or performance issue. In this case, the Tiger team consists of specialists from sales, supply chain, engineering, and technical services. Within the next 48 hours, the team investigates the cause of the alert and reports to Cisco executives about the source of the problem and potential resolutions.

In this case, the Tiger team discovered a false alarm: The customer had been accumulating parts and shipped a big batch to Cisco to clear its loading dock. Nonetheless, the Tiger team proposes ways that Cisco can help the customer better manage its inventory in a volatile economy. The team’s proactive attention to customers and quick response to a potential problem stems from Cisco’s commitment ...