AN EVOLUTION: Defining organisational success today
Shaun McCarthy, the chair of Human Synergistics Australia and New Zealand, explains that success takes many forms.
“It can be long-term; it can be short-term. It can be global; it can be local. It can be financial; it can be human. It can be in the marketplace; it can be within the organisation itself. It can be quality; it can be safety. It can be customer service. It can be risk management. It can be the organisation’s culture.”
Actually, he says, today it’s all of these and more.
McCarthy says that Human Synergistics International is celebrating its 50th anniversary and back when it started, success was largely viewed in financial terms.
“ROE, ROI, NPAT, EBITDA ruled the lexicon. CEOs of commercial companies were charged with profitability, revenue growth and capital expenditure control. CEOs of non-commercial organisations were held responsible for expenditure control and process efficiency.”
He says that over time reliable metrics were developed to measure product/service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty, employee safety, risk management, and organisational culture. These were added to the CEOs list of accountabilities.
And in recent years legislation has placed even more emphasis on some of these, he says, pointing to employee safety, and that the threat of being fined and even imprisoned for incidents, has made this top of mind for CEOs and
