Managing Key Indicators: Guidelines for department managers
By Mel Braverman 137 July - August - 2008 When you drive your automobile, a number of gauges enable you to read critical factors in your auto’s performance. The dashboard presents “key indicators” of your auto’s health: fuel level, engine temperature, RPMs, oil level and battery charge. If you ignore these indicators, it may cost you much more than it would had you paid [...]
Budgets: The Board’s Plan for Governance Investment
By Michael Healy 135 March - April - 2008 The board of directors fulfills an essential governing role in a cooperatively owned, democratically controlled business. Few assets are more valuable to a cooperative than a board that functions well, learns what it needs to do its job expertly, and provides excellent leadership. Providing that excellent leadership requires expertise, and developing expertise requires investment. In [...]
Balance Sheets: Getting the Picture of Your Co-op’s Financial Position
By Mark Goehring 132 September - October - 2007 Our cooperatives aim to provide value on behalf of member owners and often take a wide-ranging approach on how to express and demonstrate that organizational accomplishment. When it comes to managing and reporting financial performance and condition, traditional financial statements do quite nicely. Financial statements are not good places in which to exercise “local control” [...]