Financial Value Timeframes

Even if you are giving people information at their level and in their terms, you may still be overlooking another basic piece of the puzzle. In figure 2-2, the final piece of the picture is the timeframe that each audience is interested in. Knowing the timeframe of each level ‚ s measures is important when you are showing that you can follow the value story down the chain and that you get the code.

Timeframes are dynamic. What the levels of management care about depends very much on how the economy is doing. In a poor economy, urgency goes up and time gets even shorter. All measurement timeframes compress. Table 2-1 offers some guidelines about the effect of the economy overall.

Table 2-1. The effect of the economic climate on financial measure timeframes.

Financial Value Chain Level	Good Economy	Poor Economy
Senior	Manages financial measures to meet the goals of a three-to five-year period	Wants to know what you can do for them in a year
Mid	Works to achieve goals within a one- to three-year period	Wants to hear about results you can achieve in this quarter
1st/Ops	Manages in a timeframe of one quarter to one year	Needs information that will help them in four to six weeks
Individual	Works in one-week to one-quarter periods	Needs immediate daily or weekly help from your program

You not only need to match your value to the terms of the audience, but you must also acknowledge the timeframe the audience needs to have results delivered in.