I just finished presenting at the CoffeeFest 2009 – Tea & Coffee Dashboards for Decision Analysis. In terms of small business, especially in the quick service and specialty retail areas, I’ve seen a deficiency in ability to monitor and respond quickly to changes in business performance. Dashboards, especially when propagated with data from a Point of Sale (POS) system, dramatically influence a company’s ability to adapt business practices in a volatile economic environment. Even in the steady growth industries of specialty coffee and teas, one would think it’d be easy to keep your eye on all the key indicators – particularly those related to beverage menu selection and optimization.
Those who attended my talk may have noticed I didn’t spend much time explaining how I created those fancy charts and mini dashboards. I purposely glossed over this because mostly I use Excel and it’s a little too involved to be explaining formulas, combo boxes and range names to a broad audience. Suffice it to say, if you learn Excel well, these view shouldn’t be difficult to reproduce.
If you don’t want to learn Excel, give me call and we might be able to work something out. Bare in mind, dashboards should be built specific to your organization and business problems. The data needs to selected and presented in the context of your business and your pending decisions in the near future.
