“You don’t even must make profitability a KPI,” says Veejay Madhavan. “That’s simply fundamental hygiene.”
For somebody who spent many years as a company CEO, Veejay is disarmingly blunt in regards to the sacred cows of enterprise efficiency. Amongst them: Key Efficiency Indicators, or KPIs.
“We’re given monetary KPIs like income and margins,” he continues, “but when the corporate isn’t worthwhile, nobody has a job. That’s foundational. That must be a dashboard merchandise, not a KPI.”
In his view, right now’s metrics usually miss the mark—not as a result of numbers don’t matter, however as a result of the folks executing towards these numbers are neither aligned nor geared up to succeed. Because the founding father of Oulbyz, a consulting agency targeted on constructing high-performing, multigenerational groups within the age of AI, Veejay has turned his consideration to a quietly failing layer of most organizations: center administration.
“In case your KPIs don’t make sense to the people who find themselves alleged to ship them, what are they good for?”
The disconnect between technique and execution
On the coronary heart of Veejay Madhavan’s critique is a straightforward disconnect: boards and executives set high-level monetary targets, however these mandates are not often translated into actionable aims for these under.
“We can’t block, copy-paste a KPI that the board has given and say, ‘Okay, that is our KPI on the management stage.’ The management stage has to take a look at every little thing. That’s their job. However it doesn’t imply the identical KPI ought to trickle down unchanged.”
This, he says, is the place most organizations falter. Metrics that may be strategically legitimate on the high lose coherence additional down the chain. Worse, they usually change into sources of confusion or inertia.
He provides a situation: “Say you give somebody a KPI of producing $100 million in income. They don’t management that. They will’t decide how a lot a buyer will spend, which package deal they’ll select, or whether or not they even keep. However in case you say, ‘We have to discover 100,000 company clients who’ve the ache factors we resolve,’ that is smart. That’s one thing they will do.”
In different phrases, KPIs ought to mirror management and affect, not simply ambition.
On why managers really feel misplaced
The results of this misalignment? Exhausted, confused center managers.
“Every part in an organization appears to be pressing and necessary,” he says. “How can there be 100 issues which are pressing? If every little thing’s pressing, one thing is incorrect.”
He paints an image of managers continuously pulled in all instructions—upward to management, downward to their groups, and sideways throughout capabilities—with no readability on the place their true priorities lie.
He likens the scenario to an overburdened air visitors management tower. “If the folks managing the fleet don’t know which airplane to fly, which path to take off from, they usually’re solely given one runway, what occurs? You get a backlog of planes. Everyone seems to be ready. And you then park an enormous airplane in entrance of a small one, and the small one has to attend as a result of there’ll be turbulence.”
He makes use of aviation analogies all through his follow as a result of they provide a visceral approach to perceive methods considering and organizational stream. The purpose is obvious: if leaders can’t prioritize and talk clearly, their managers can’t execute successfully.
“The judgment comes quick,” he provides. “You’re requested, ‘Why haven’t you taken off but?’ However nobody stops to see that there’s a triple-seven flying proper in entrance of you.”
The KPI nobody owns
In Veejay’s work, one of the widespread breakdowns is possession. KPIs change into disconnected from the fact of each day work, and after they don’t mirror what workers truly do or can do, they change into meaningless.
“We see staff members saying, ‘I’ve performed my job. I’m ready for another person to complete theirs.’ That’s not collaboration. That’s leakage,” he says. “Their KPIs had been set that approach. So that they didn’t really feel like a part of a staff; they only accomplished a process.”
He calls this an “power leak”: a second when functionality, perception, or initiative is withheld as a result of somebody doesn’t really feel accountable for the broader objective.
“In case you give somebody a goal and say, ‘That’s your job,’ they gained’t step exterior of it. Even when they may help. Even when they’ve perception.”
For Veejay, a very high-performing staff behaves otherwise. The engineer doesn’t simply write code. The ops particular person doesn’t simply monitor dashboards. Everyone seems to be aligned round a shared goal and empowered to contribute throughout silos.
“If we are saying the staff’s objective is to develop the client base by 3x, then everybody shares it. Not from their operate, however as a staff. That’s what actual possession seems like.”
Refurbishing the company plane
This shift from particular person KPIs to team-level possession requires structural change. And that, he says, is the place most corporations resist.
“You wish to fly from Singapore to New York, however your airplane continues to be a 737. Nobody’s going to sit down in an economic system seat for 18 hours with out consolation. You must refurbish the airplane.”
In his analogy, the plane is the corporate’s inside working system—its constructions, processes, and methods of measuring efficiency. You possibly can’t count on long-haul efficiency with short-haul infrastructure.
“All of us wish to fly far, quick, however we’re not asking if our airplane is prepared. Is it geared up? Is the crew skilled? Are the KPIs designed for that journey? More often than not, they’re not.”
The implication: KPI reform is about reengineering how groups are structured, how success is outlined, and the way accountability is shared.
Readability within the center: A systemic repair
At Oulbyz, Veejay Madhavan begins each engagement the identical approach: with a discovery dialog.
“We ask one factor: in case you might repair only one or two issues, what would they be to stage up your group?”
From there, the method unfolds into alignment workshops, functionality assessments, and one thing he calls the “readability workshop.” The objective is to detect the place directions are breaking down and why managers aren’t translating technique into execution.
“Typically it’s not a talent downside,” he explains. “HR and distributors do a great job on that. The problem is folks don’t even know what they’re alleged to concentrate on.”
He remembers a consumer engagement the place center managers had been juggling ten simultaneous priorities with no steerage. “All they hear is pressing, pressing, pressing. However when every little thing’s pressing, it means nothing is.”
That’s when he steps in: to recalibrate not simply the staff, however the management above them.
“We assist them ask the essential query: ‘Which three issues matter most proper now?’ As a result of in case you don’t ask, you’re flying blind.”
Typically, the reply reveals a extra uncomfortable reality.
“There are occasions we stroll away,” he says. “We’ve informed shoppers, ‘Your subject isn’t with the staff. It’s with you.’”
‘Cease outsourcing readability’
In Veejay’s view, the KPI disaster isn’t nearly metrics. It’s about possession of that means.
“In case your folks don’t even know who they’re, how can they know what they’re alleged to do?”
To repair the issue, corporations want greater than smarter spreadsheets. They want honesty, alignment, and leaders keen to prioritize readability over management.
“We aren’t a band-aid. We’re a mirror. We present you what you’ve patched over, and what’s festering beneath. Whether or not you act on it or not is as much as you.”
In an age obsessive about efficiency, Veejay Madhavan’s message is quietly radical: readability is the core infrastructure for every little thing else.
For extra insights from Veejay Madhavan and his work, comply with him on LinkedIn and Medium.
