What Makes Really Good Management Reports?

Having looked at a fair old number of Management Information ("MI") systems and monthly reporting formats, what strikes me is that some of the prettiest, most eye catching and most clearly laid out are often the most ineffective. We all love a graph and there is nothing more pleasing than a multi-coloured pie-chart, but are these displays of wizardry actually useful? Most are not, for one simple reason: these reporting formats lack a key ingredient – they do not produce "calls to action".

Intelligent commentaries

Only rarely do we see a commentary attached to the numbers and this is vital.

• If sales have risen month on month by 20%, is that good news? Well, not if all they are doing is returning to trend and not if the business is cyclical and monthly sales are actually 15% down on the same month last year.