Every structured company strives to carefully choose the words to define the mission it dedicates itself to. This mission is most often expressed in relation to the profession practiced by each company. In these times of crisis linked to COVID, I wanted to remind that there is no more important “Mission” for any company than that of “Creating WEALTH”.
This primary and essential mission applies to every profit-oriented economic enterprise, regardless of its profession. Indeed, it is through accumulated profits that a company can employ women and men, develop and innovate products and services, and play its essential societal role.
With the current crisis, understanding costs and detailed profitability per product or service provided, per site or agency or region, per market or customer segment, becomes an urgent necessity to be able to steer a company wisely. Indeed, as P. Drucker says, one can only manage what one can measure. This statement is even more true in times of crisis. Nevertheless, exploiting profitability niches and addressing the sources of deficits is only possible if information on detailed profitability is made available.
The crisis is expected to last for 3 years according to analysts. The most optimistic estimates predict the crisis’s end in the fall of 2022. In the meantime, companies will have to survive and continue to create wealth. Fortunately, technology now allows solutions to make past and predictive analytical information available, regardless of the maturity level of the information system. These solutions should, therefore, be placed at the forefront of managers’ priorities to best preserve the primary societal role of any company.