How to Use Metrics to Drive Competitive Advantage

GCC Leaders: Are You Measuring What Truly Matters? To measure the real impact of your Global Capability Center (GCC), you must go beyond traditional operational KPIs like cost savings or headcount. Those are hygiene. What truly matters is how your GCC moves the needle for the business. Here are 5 strategic metrics every GCC leader should track: 1. Value Delivered per Dollar Spent Why it matters: Shows how effectively the GCC converts investment into business outcomes. How to measure: • Business value (e.g., product revenue, productivity gains, IP created) / Total GCC cost • Can be benchmarked against alternative models (outsourcing, onshore) 2. Time to Market Acceleration Why it matters: Reflects the GCC’s ability to improve speed of execution for product development, support, or operations. How to measure: • % improvement in release velocity or cycle times after GCC involvement • Lead time from idea to launch before vs. after GCC enablement 3. Innovation Output Why it matters: Indicates contribution toward competitive advantage and future growth. How to measure: • Patents filed, features launched, automation use cases deployed • Number of AI/GenAI initiatives incubated and scaled • New product ideas or MVPs driven from GCC 4. Business Function Ownership & Accountability Why it matters: Measures the maturity and strategic importance of the GCC. How to measure: • % of global business function fully owned or co-owned by GCC (e.g., platforms, support functions, analytics COEs) • Strategic roles (Directors, VPs) based in the GCC • Participation in global decision-making forums 5. Customer or Stakeholder NPS / Satisfaction Score Why it matters: This metric reflects how well the GCC is delivering value—both through the products it helps build and the support it provides to global stakeholders. How to measure: • NPS from external customers using products or services developed by GCC teams • NPS from internal stakeholders on the GCC’s responsiveness, collaboration, and strategic alignment • Qualitative feedback on product quality, innovation, speed of execution, and business understanding If your GCC isn’t driving the business forward, it’s just another offshore team. And in 2025, that’s not enough. Rethink how you measure. Reframe how you lead. Redefine what your GCC stands for. Zinnov Amita Goyal Karthik Padmanabhan Amaresh N. Mohammed Faraz Khan Namita Adavi Dipanwita Ghosh Sagar Kulkarni Hani Mukhey ieswariya Rohit Nair Komal Shah Saurabh Mehta

🙋🏽 Are you still measuring sales success with the same old yardsticks? I've observed a fascinating trend among the most innovative B2B tech company CEOs. They're not just looking at traditional metrics; they're digging deeper. Here are four unconventional, yet crucial, sales metrics you should be tracking in 2024: 1️⃣ Sales Velocity: Calculation: (Number of Opportunities × Average Deal Value × Win Rate) / Length of Sales Cycle. Insight: Gauges how quickly deals are moving through your pipeline and generating revenue. A cloud services client reduced their proposal generation time, resulting in a significant increase in sales velocity and revenue. 2️⃣ Net Promoter Score (NPS) Among Lost Opportunities: Calculation: Percentage of detractors subtracted from promoters among lost leads. Insight: Helps understand the brand perception even among leads that didn’t convert. Despite losing a major deal, a Martech Series B startup found a high NPS among these leads, indicating strong market presence. 3️⃣ Sales and Marketing Alignment Score (SMAS): Calculation: Qualitative assessment of the synchronization between sales and marketing strategies. Insight: Measures the efficacy of your sales and marketing teams working as a unified front. A digital transformation company's realignment of sales and marketing objectives led to higher SMAS and better campaign results. 4️⃣ Social Selling Index (SSI): Calculation: Based on LinkedIn's SSI, measuring salespeople’s ability to establish a professional brand, find the right people, engage with insights, and build relationships. Insight: Tracks how effectively your team is using social networks to grow their sales pipeline. An AI tech firm's focus on LinkedIn training for their sales team boosted their SSI and led to an uptick in leads. 💡 How does your company leverage unconventional metrics to stay ahead in the competitive B2B tech landscape? Are there any unique metrics you’ve found particularly revealing? By shifting focus to these lesser-known metrics, you're not just following trends; you're setting them. Remember, in 2024, the key to sales success lies in innovation and deep insights. #SalesInnovation #FutureOfSales #TechTrends2024 #UnconventionalMetrics #B2BStrategy

I lost $2.3M because I was drowning in metrics. Most entrepreneurs (including my former self) fall into one of two dangerous traps when it comes to measuring business performance. Let me share what I discovered after the expensive way... Trap #1: The "Gut-Feel" Brigade These are the entrepreneurs running their entire operation on intuition. "I know my business," they say. "I can feel when things are working," they insist. I get it. But here's the truth: You can't improve what you don't measure. Trap #2: The "Data Hoarders" Then there's the opposite extreme (this was me): • 47 different KPIs • Multiple dashboards • Daily metric reviews • Endless spreadsheets What did I get? → Analysis paralysis → Decision freezes → Constant strategy shifts → Bleeding cash like a hemophiliac in a tub of razors Here's what changed everything for me: The One Metric That Matters (OMTM) Framework Instead of tracking everything or nothing, identify the ONE metric that's currently blocking your growth. Examples from my consulting work: • E-commerce client stuck at $2M/year OMTM: Cart abandonment rate Result: Added $3M in profit • Services business launching in new geo OMTM: New meetings booked Result: $1M in new business in 8 months The magic happens because: 1. Clear focus 2. Aligned teams 3. Faster decisions 4. Better results How to Find Your OMTM: 1. Identify your current #1 business goal 2. List all metrics that influence it 3. Ask: "If I could only improve ONE of these, which would have the biggest impact?" That's your OMTM. But remember: It's not static. Your OMTM will change.  Focus on your One Metric That Matters. Everything else is just noise. P.S. - if you want to know how to scale without voodoo and gurus, I write and make videos about using the scientific method in business.

Growth isn’t guessing. It’s math. This one formula will help you crack it: I learned this lesson early in my career at McKinsey. During a major project, my team broke down the company’s entire business model into equations. It was the first time I saw how powerful it could be to reduce complex problems into simple math. ‘Driver Trees’ simplify business metrics into a clear, actionable blueprint. At the top is your main KPI, like revenue or profit. Below are the variables (CPC, CTR, AOV) driving results. Understanding these relationships helps you predict how small changes, like cutting $0.10 off CPC, affect your bottom line. Most teams operate in silos and speak different languages. → Marketing, clicks and CTR → Finance, EBITDA and ROI Driver Trees are your Rosetta Stone. They show exactly how a website click equates to dollars in the bank. This matters for two big reasons: 1. You stop wasting budget on channels that don’t move the needle. 2. You identify where small tweaks drive big profit spikes. Let me illustrate with a simple example: Revenue = Traffic × CVR × AOV Traffic breaks into sub-drivers like: • Paid Social = (Budget ÷ CPM) × CTR • Organic SEO, CRM Traffic, etc. A 10% boost in CTR can lower CPC, increase traffic, and ultimately lift revenue and EBITDA. At Aux Insights, we uniquely leverage Driver Trees to optimize PE-backed businesses. During due diligence, we uncover inefficiencies (e.g., underperforming ad channels) and shift focus to high-ROI opportunities. Post-acquisition, we diagnose the highest ROI tactics to efficiently move the EBITDA needle. We take this scientific approach further with a proven 5-step process. 1. Identify growth moves (e.g., paid ads, CRO). 2. Link tactics to KPIs (CTR, CVR, AOV). 3. Forecast impact with benchmarks. 4. Run A/B tests and measure real results. 5. Tie everything back to EBITDA. We built our name on approaches just like this. Helping brands, operators, and investors unlock 📈 returns. If this makes your inner math nerd do a happy dance, let’s talk! We’re HIRING former MBB consultants with growth marketing experience for EM and Case Partner roles. Tag a friend. Let’s chat. Apply below!

One of the most common mistakes that companies make is to focus too narrowly on a small set of metrics while overlooking the broader ecosystem of inputs that drive results. At Amazon, we rejected the conventional wisdom that Executives should focus on just a few high-level metrics. Instead, we spent years developing mechanisms to measure, analyze, and improve thousands of input metrics (actions) based on the impact they have on output metrics (business results). The key lessons from this approach are: 1. Do not limit the number of metrics you monitor – Track a broad set of metrics, add, delete, and edit them over time based on observed results. 2. Review both controllable inputs (leading indicators) and output metrics (results) – They must be reviewed in tandem to understand cause-and-effect relationships. 3. Regularly review, analyze, and adjust metrics – The metrics that Amazon tracks are continuously improved to more accurately represent the speed, quality, and cost of every customer-facing process. 4. Implement new product and process improvements designed to deliver improvements for your input metrics. If you have selected the right inputs, then improvements to your outputs will follow. 5. Control your processes by continuously reviewing all relevant input metrics to ensure they stay within desired tolerances as internal and external factors change over time. Following these steps uses the Six Sigma technique known as DMAIC - Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. The typical approach is to focus deeply on metrics like sales and gross margin while spending little or no time measuring or managing elements of the customer experience. At Amazon, this focus is reversed.