NADL Vision 21: Strategies to Sharpen Your Focus

“Metrics cut through subjectivity, create accountability and clarity and enable you to solve problems faster,” said BJ Kowalski, President, ROE Dental Laboratory, CDL, DAMAS, Independence, OH, during his presentation, Metrics that Drive Success, at the NADL’s Vision 21 meeting in Las Vegas in January.

While he’s always been a proponent of using metrics to gauge performance, Kowalski hired a part-time CFO last year who has helped him look at his metrics differently and more extensively. For instance, in addition to labor, sales, materials costs and gross margin, he now tracks uncompleted work, on-time delivery, how quickly the phones are answered and email response time by customer service reps. “The more specifics you can analyze, the greater your ability to determine which areas are thriving or need change,” he said.

Also addressing business success was Diana Kander, the New York Times best-selling author of The Curiosity...