Investment Performance Tracking

Strategic Investment Tracking & Measurement

Who is in charge of your strategic investments? Do you have a protocol for managing their performance, for tracking their phases and their progress, and for measuring results and ensuring that they don’t damage the company?

In many mid-market companies, no single person owns this responsibility. In other companies, it may be a group of executives. And, in most cases, the majority of businesses do not have a formal process for evaluating and managing strategic investments.

Investment Details to Manage

Every business has strategic investments. They’re simply decisions to invest money today in hopes for a return in the future. Here are some examples:

• Adding a new product line
• Accessing a new market
• Making a new staff hire
• Purchasing new equipment
• Opening a new location
• Moving manufacturing overseas
• Investing in R&D
• Acquiring competitors

Strategic investments are like water: too much or too little can end up being fatal. To manage them and determine the viability of each, focus on these four areas:

1. How many you’re undertaking
2. How each is progressing
3. If an investment should be abandoned
4. How well your core business is performing

The Impact

Mid-market CEOs and their leadership teams intuitively understand the high-level details of their strategic investments. But it’s rare for a mid-market company to measure and track either the performance of the investment as an independent entity, or its impact on the business as a whole. Should they, you ask?

The process of identifying, prioritizing, and managing strategic investments is the most important determinant of entrepreneurial success.

We have a specialized tool and management procedure for managing these investments, called J Curve Management.