A couple of weeks ago I read an article in the Sunday Times by James Timpson, CEO of Timpson Group, a family owned and operated business with more than 2000 high street shops. They repair shoes and watches, cut keys and engrave, dry clean and develop photos. In 2019 Timpson Group made a profit of £17M. Not bad for a business where the CEO “hardly ever looks at the data our business produces“.
In these data-driven times James Timpson’s admission is quite something but Timpson Group shows no signs of suffering for their CEO’s lack of interest in the data. While James is clearly not in the least bit interested in collecting reams of data and employing people to analyse it and strategise over it he is absolutely interested in, and close to, the numbers. Three numbers in particular:
- Daily Sales
- Customer satisfaction scores
- Cash in bank vs. year ago
Daily Sales
Every night James reviews that day’s sales. He knows exactly how much revenue has been generated every single day. James isn’t the only person in the business who knows what his daily sales are, every single shop keeper does too. Timpson stores don’t have EPoS systems to report revenue to a distant head office, instead, Timpson store-colleagues report in daily takings every day as part of their shutting shop routine.
Customer Satisfaction Scores
Consistently giving customers what they need and want generates repeat business and loyalty. A gradual erosion in customer satisfaction scores is a likely precursor to a drop in revenue. James looks at the rolling average weekly score each day and there are systems in place to contact disastified customers in order to resolve issues and to understand them.
Cash
Every morning James does what his father taught him to do. He checks the company’s bank balance compared with the same day a year ago. He knows the bank balance, knows what’s going in and going out. He understands cashflow and knows whether Timpson Group are truly making money.
So, although James doesn’t look at the data, he definitely knows the Timpson Group’s vital statistics.
My vital statistics
I admire James’ focus and I paricularly like that Timpson Group colleagues are close to the numbers too. I think this must foster accountability and ownership. It got me thinking about what my vital statistics are and they’re not that different to James’:
- Cash in bank (less estimated tax)
- Average 3 month revenue (over a 12 month period)
- Client satisfaction (measured by repeat business and referral)
I’d love to know what your top three work success metrics would be. Knowing these and measuring them ensures accountability and ownership and regardless of who pays our wages we should all be accountable for our work.
You’ll find the article here (behind a paywall): https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-best-morning-routine-check-your-bank-balance-zfvmth5bd or on twitter where it was shared in full by @AJWillshire: https://twitter.com/ajwillshire/status/1388756709213081600
