Managing for Progress

The challenges organizations are facing in the twenty-first century – Managing for progress

Organizations recognize the need for quickly and easily using high-quality information to define, measure and communicate progress at all levels of society, and to make responsive and responsible decisions that have major impact on their organizations and on citizens’ lives. However, efforts to collate, analyze, understand and share the vast amounts of complex societal information have been traditionally been limited by technology, geography, or methodology.

Increasingly, commercial and public sector organizations are looking to understand and better utilize the vast amounts of information about society and the external environment. These organizations want to leverage that information to measure the progress they make against their missions and strategic goals as well as inform strategic policy and business decisions.

Using innovations in technology and breakthrough thinking in consulting services, IBM has developed a range of solutions for this market – what IBM calls the "Societal Intelligence" market. The central idea behind creating a framework for verifiable progress is "progress indicators" – which are essentially metrics that an organization can use to track how much progress it has made against a pre-defined set of strategic goals and objectives.

Some of the most promising areas that could benefit from this new thinking are:

• Innovation-led transformation – especially in sectors such as Energy, Healthcare, Transportation, and Education

• Economic development that helps regions become more competitive

• Managing for progress engagements focused on key indicator development

• Strategy engagements (business, operation, technology, and organization strategy)

• Environment management and sustainability

• Social, community, and peer-to-peer collaboration models