Do you get the right information of the right quality at the right time to know what's going on in your business? Are you buried in reports & drowning in data but have very little good information, or do you find you have very little idea what's really going on in your business? Do you know what the critical success factors of your business are - the real one, not the ones that just seem to look good? Can you quickly zero in on the key facts you really need to make decisions – quickly? Does your information system support your organization’s critical systems? - Accountability system (Is everyone clear on what they're being asked to do & accountable to the numbers they committed to)? - Performance system (How well are your people doing? How well is your organization doing)? - Feedback system (Do you keep doing what you're doing or should you make corrections)? - Recognition system (Are you recognising exceptional performance so you can acknowledge it? Are you aware of poor performance so you can correct it)? - Training system (Does everyone have the skills necessary for good performance)? Clear Advantage™ Reporting is an extremely simple and straightforward information system that gives you and your managers all the information they need to manage their teams & succeed in their jobs.

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www.BobBarrington.com
Clear Advantage™
Reporting
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................2
Introducing: Clear Advantage™ Reporting.............................................................................................2
Who would benefit from Clear Advantage™ Reporting? ...................................................................3
Key Benefits ........................................................................................................................................3
Clear Advantage™ Reports..................................................................................................................3
1. Focus Report ...........................................................................................................................3
2. Management Report...............................................................................................................4
Implementing Clear Advantage™ Reporting...........................................................................................4
Focus Report .......................................................................................................................................4
1. Set goals..................................................................................................................................4
2. Identify your relationships......................................................................................................5
3. Define your Success Areas ......................................................................................................5
4. Identify Success Factor for each Success Area........................................................................5
5. Get good information .............................................................................................................5
6. Create your Focus Report .......................................................................................................6
Example Focus Report.....................................................................................................................7
Management Report...........................................................................................................................7
Example Management Report........................................................................................................8
How does it work? ..........................................................................................................................8
Summary.................................................................................................................................................9
Next Steps...............................................................................................................................................9
“Helping people and businesses succeed”
www.bobbarrington.com ©2014
bob@bobbarrington.com

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Introduction
Do you have an Information Problem?
 Do you really know what’s going on in your business?
 Are you buried in reports?
 Are you drowning in oceans of data but have very little good information?
 Do you know what the critical success factors of your business are?
 Can you quickly zero in on the key facts you really need to make decisions - quickly?
Many businesses, small and large, suffer from these exact problems.
Sometimes they’ve inherited an information system & not taken the time to establish what they
truly need to run their business in the 21st century. Sometimes they’ve grown too fast; their
information needs have changed and they haven’t kept up.
Ask yourself these key questions…
 Does your information system reinforce the few but critical key success factors that when
rigorously and conscientiously applied with relentless discipline and determination guarantee
the success of your business?
 Does everyone in your business have the right information, of the right quality, at the right
levels, at the right time to make the right decisions?
 Does your information system support your organization’s critical systems?
 Accountability system
o Is everyone clear on what they're being asked to do?
o Is everyone accountable to the numbers they committed to?
 Performance system
o How well are your people doing?
o How well is your organization doing?
 Feedback system
o Do you keep doing what you're doing or should you make corrections?
 Recognition system
o Are you recognising exceptional performance so you can acknowledge it?
o Are you aware of poor performance so you can correct it?
 Training system
o Does everyone have the skills necessary for good performance?
Is information a problem in your business?
Introducing: Clear Advantage™ Reporting
If you have an Information Problem in your business, you're in luck! Help is at hand!
Introducing Clear Advantage™ Reporting!
Clear Advantage™ Reporting is an extremely simple and straightforward information system
that gives you and your managers all the information they need to manage their teams &
succeed in their jobs.

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The essence of the Clear Advantage™ Reporting System is two separate, but equally
important one page reports. That’s right! Just two reports and each just one page!
The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the simplicity, power and transparency that the
Clear Advantage™ reporting methodology can bring to your organization.
The Clear Advantage™ Reporting methodology allows managers to define and focus on those
factors that are most important to the achievement of organizational goals.
Who would benefit from Clear Advantage™ Reporting?
Clear Advantage™ Reporting is for you if:
 You lack the right information, of the right quality, at the right levels, at the right time to
make the right decisions in your business
 You feel that your business is overloaded with data but lacking the vital information to get
the job done
 You do not understand or have not defined the critical success factors that when focussed
on with relentless discipline and determination virtually guarantee success for your business
 You do not have a system that allows high achievers to be readily recognised, acknowledged
and rewarded, or problems to be spotted early.
Key Benefits
 Provides key management reports – tracking actual performance vs 3 levels of goals with
trends
 Based on each manager’s view of critical success factors, negotiated with stakeholders.
 Two separate single page reports only
 Allows each manager to see exactly where they are in terms of their goals - what's going
well and what's not
 Allows each manager to manage direct subordinates by exception.
 Allows each manager to view the good and bad by exception of those indirect
subordinates – filtered by rules you define
 Cuts through data to get to the most important information
 Allows you to recognise, acknowledge & reward individuals without influence
Clear Advantage™ Reports
1. Focus Report
The Focus Report is about what you do, and both the good and bad news about what you do. It
is personal to each individual, as each person’s job is different. If the Focus Report is not unique
and relevant to an individual person, their current job may not be adding value.
In collaboration with their customers and stakeholders, each manager decides what information
they need to manage. However people have different views of what success looks like.
What are your success criteria?

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How do you know when you’ve been successful?
Would it be your net profit, market share, share price, cost per unit, debt/equity ratio, or would
it be qualitative factors like morale or customer satisfaction?
2. Management Report
The Management Report is about what your people do, and both the good and bad news about
what they do. It tells you what’s happening below you in the organization through each layer.
Implementing Clear Advantage™ Reporting
Focus Report
1. Set goals
Goal setting is vital to any business, indeed to anyone wanting to be successful in life.
It is said that fewer than 5% of people set goals, and fewer than 5% of people consider their lives
to be successful.
Goals focus the mind – they tell your subconscious what is important and what to focus on. Your
creativity is stimulated by clear goals with specified deadlines for achievement.
They must be written down and referred to regularly. Goals help you to know what success looks
like.
The Clear Advantage™ Reporting system specifies that goals be set at three different levels, and
be defined in terms of metrics AND dates for their achievement.
Minimum This is the borderline between Satisfactory & unacceptable. Performance at
or below this level is unsatisfactory and requires management attention.
Satisfactory This level of performance is higher than the current level of performance but
definitely achievable in the short term. It must be defined to be sufficiently
challenging and would inform you that you are heading towards your
ultimate goal. You would feel good about reaching this goal.
Outstanding Outstanding performance is an achievable but challenging target, generally
achieved over a long time and attained through a series of Satisfactory steps.
It demonstrates a high standard of excellence and is definitely cause for
celebration!
And remember, your goals should be regularly reviewed. When a manager changes jobs, their
goals and success factors should change too. And when a Satisfactory goal is met consistently, it
should be tightened.

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2. Identify your relationships
You need to know who your customers are. You need to know who expects the output from
your work. You need to know whether you are satisfying them or not, and if not why not.
Start by defining your important categories of relationship (not individuals necessarily, though
some could be). Everyone has a different set of relationships, which each have different
expectations. Who are your stakeholders, suppliers, customers, direct subordinates, boss,
board, regulator, other staff, and employer? What is the purpose of your job? Where does it fit
into the organisation? Who are you supposed to satisfy?
3. Define your Success Areas
Success Areas are the primary categories that define your job. For example, they might be sales,
operations, projects, financial or human resources. Your Success Areas should be defined from
the point of view of your stakeholders, i.e. users, suppliers, employers & bosses, as well as your
own.
4. Identify Success Factor for each Success Area
Within each Success Area, there may be a number of Success Factors. Success Factors are how
you know whether you’ve succeeded or not.
In the Sales Success Area for example, you may want to report on Number of Calls made,
Number of Presentations, Number of follow ups, Percentage of Returns, On-time Deliveries etc.
Other Success Factors might be gross or net profit, market share, share price, cost per unit,
debt/equity ratio etc., and qualitative factors.
There may be several Success Factors for each Success Area, and these are all important.
However, the point of the Clear Advantage™ Reporting System is to reduce the volume of
information to the key, strategic information necessary to drive your business forward.
You are asked now to negotiate with your stakeholders (especially your boss) to identify the
MOST important success factors, the CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS within each SUCCESS AREA and
covering all your RELATIONSHIPS. These are the Factors you will focus on and report on.
5. Get good information
For each CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR you need GOOD INFORMATION.
Good Information must be CAPTURED, ACCURATE, TIMELY, UP TO DATE, RELEVANT, PROPERLY DEFINED and
RELIABLE.
Good Information does not arrive on your desk by accident. It is the product of a multitude of
systems, processes, analysis, IT, corporate organization, culture, training, feedback mechanisms,
storage systems, communication systems and more. If your information systems are not robust
and reliable, how can your management reports be relied upon? Contact us at
www.peppertree.co.uk and we can arrange a review of your systems, processes and data.
In Clear Advantage™ Reporting the current status of each Success Factor is known as its Actual.
For some Success Factors the Actual is determined over a period of time, usually a week or a
month. Some examples of these types of Factors are % rejects, sales and net profit.

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For other Success Factors the Actual is determined at a point in time. Examples are market
share, debt/equity ratio and share price.
6. Create your Focus Report
Your Focus Report is where it all comes together. This is where your Actual results and your
Goals come together, normally on a weekly basis.
Your Actual result is where you see the good information about your critical success factors and
where you are compared with your goals.
The Focus Report allows you to look at one piece of paper rather than lots of different reports.
It also allows you to take time to look at what you're doing right and not just dwell on what is
going wrong.
For each individual, and for each Success Area, their Focus Report should show all the unique
critical success factors that define their roles, accountabilities and responsibilities. Totals and
averages from subordinates can be included, but if that’s all there is
The Focus Report highlights three critical aspects of your performance against each critical
success factor in each of your Success Areas:
1. Result. The status of each critical success factor and whether you’ve reach a satisfactory
level of performance. If you have, celebrate. If you haven’t, think of adjusting your strategy,
approach, commitment or effort.
Result
a. Actual Current status of Critical success factor.
b. Minimum Goal Borderline between satisfactory & unacceptable.
c. Satisfactory Goal Achievable in the short term.
d. Outstanding Goal An achievable but challenging target.
2. Trend. How each critical success factor is trending. On the road to success, you have to
know if you're heading in the right direction. The trend will tell you that. (Note that a graph
would convey trend information much better than a simple good/bad representation).
Trend
a. No. Periods of Trend Number of consecutive periods for the current trend.
b. Trend Improving performance – Good.
Worsening performance – Bad.
3. Feedback. Showing at a glance where your strengths & weaknesses are, where you have
cause to celebrate and where you may have to think again.
Feedback
a. Performance Exceeded Satisfactory – Positive – Congratulations
Less than Minimum – Negative – Think Again
Between Minimum & Satisfactory – nothing reported
b. Level Reported Up To See below.

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Example Focus Report
FOCUS REPORT for A. Manager - Week Ending __/__/__
Success Area 1 – e.g. Sales
Result Trend Feedback
Critical
Success
Factor
Actual Minimum
Goal
Satisfactory
Goal
Outstanding
Goal
No.
Periods
Of trend
Trend Performa
nce
Level
reported
up to
Sales £1.75m £1.77m £1.80m £1.90m 1 Bad Negative
Re-think
4
Market
Share
23% 18% 22% 25% 4 Good Positive
Congratu
lations!
3
Salaries £170k £175k £165k £155k 6 Good - -
Success Area 2 – e.g. Operations
Result Trend Feedback
Critical
Success
Factor
Actual Minimum
Goal
Satisfactory
Goal
Outstanding
Goal
#
Periods
Of trend
Trend Performa
nce
Level
reported
up to
#4 Good/
Bad
Positive/
Negative
#5
Management Report
The Focus Report is all about you, your performance and the good things you're doing.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a report that gives you all the good and bad news about the people
you directly manage? And not only that! What if you could see the best of the good news
about what people have achieved several layers below you, and the worst of the bad news you
should probably also know about.
Well, in Clear Advantage™ Reporting we have a report that does just this. It’s called the
Management Report.
With the Management Report, excellent performance can be reported all the way up the
organisation, and people can be recognised, acknowledged and rewarded for outstanding
achievement. Such a system of recognition and acknowledgement offers profound behavioural
benefits to an organisation.

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Example Management Report
MANAGEMENT REPORT for M.Y. Manager - Week Ending __/__/__
Management report
Performance Who? Name Critical
Success
Factor
Actual Minim
um
Goal
Satisfa
ctory
Goa.
No.
periods
in a
row
Trend
Positive –
“Better than
Satisfactory”
Direct
Subordinates
A.Manager Market
Share
23% 18% 22% 4 Good
People several
levels below
A.Palmer %
Returns
Negative –
“Worse than
Minimum”
Direct
Subordinates
A.Manager Sales £1.75m £1.77m £1.80m 1 Bad
People several
levels below
J.Nicholls Late
Delivery
How does it work?
Firstly, your Management Report shows you all the Positive “Better than Satisfactory” and
Negative “Worse than Minimum” exceptions for your Direct Subordinates, i.e. those people you
manage directly.
But what about the other people in your organization? What about those that aren’t your direct
subordinates? What about them? How do you hear about all the good things they are doing?
And equally, the good things they are not doing. The answer lies in the Management Report.
The way it works allows exceptionally good results, or chronic problems, to be reported up
through your organisation. The system makes both exceptional performance and poor
performance transparent right up the line, right to the top if those are the rules you’ve set.
Now to prevent managers from being bombarded with every single exceptional result that
occurs in their down-line, you decide in advance the rules to be followed. This also gives middle
management levels the time and opportunity to sort out problems before they are escalated.
You decide how many levels to report both positive and negative exceptions – giving ample time
for their resolution. For example, you might choose to report any critical success factors which
have been positive or negative for more than 3 periods in a row up 2 levels, and if for more than
4 periods in a row they are reported up 3 levels etc.
Only exceptional results, i.e. better than Satisfactory and worse than Minimum are shown in the
Management Report. Results between these two ranges are not reported as they are not
exceptions.
When good or bad news is reported to upper levels in an organisation, the individual’s Focus
Report will show what level that information has been reported up to . So they know who
knows. Whether good or bad, what a powerful motivational tool!

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Summary
Clear Advantage™ Reports are a great management tool. They break down barriers to
communication and help businesses focus on the fundamental Critical Success Factors to give
them greater control over their own performance and results. Here is a system to help
executives, managers and leaders in any organization attain high production and realise their
goals.
But Clear Advantage™ Reports only make information available in an easy to understand and
actionable way. The most important benefits may come with managers taking more interest in
their subordinates, improved problem solving, communication, and acknowledging the
outstanding efforts people make every day.
Next Steps
If you would like us to review your Management Information Systems, Processes and Data,
please email Bob Barrington at bob@bobbarrington.com
Acknowledgement:
We would like to acknowledge the work of Riaz Khadem and Robert Lorber in “One Page
Management” 1986 William Morrow and Company Inc., which has been inspirational to some of
the development of our Clear Advantage™ Reporting Methodology.
One Page Management was originally developed as a concept within the field of Systems Theory
in the early 1980s. Its effect is to capture the mission of a business on a single page. “The
objective is … to enable people better to understand, and control, the complex systems within
which they must live and work”.