Online Sales "only" make up 42% of Amazon's results. Ad Sales "only" make up 57% of Google's results. Sounds surprising, right?

But do you really know what drives the performance of your business?

Let us be honest; we assume that we know what drives results in our company. We tend to know that good service drives retention or that employee satisfaction drives productivity. We tend to think we know the facts and the assumptions behind them.

But once we go deeper, it isn't easy to justify some results or result drivers.

There are many frameworks that were built in the last three decades that look at different aspects of performance:

• Balanced Scorecards aim at getting a holistic view of company performance by connecting across all areas of a business,

• Strategy Maps aim to show cause-and-effect relationships between strategic objectives and

• OKRs as target-setting methodology, also look at tracking progress and connecting strategic objectives.

But one thing is target setting and strategic objectives, and another is following up on performance.

Here's my take on what works to start mapping performance:

1. Make a simple drawing of your main KPIs: Draw the cause-effect relationships between them.

2. Test your assumptions with data, starting with the most significant sources! Pareto applies here!

3. Once you have the main three, check them with your frontline! Ask them for their assumptions.

4. Stick to the main three and dive deeper. Where you need help to confirm your assumptions is usually where the issues are.

"Never mistake activity for achievement," wrote John Wooden.

I can't wait to read your feedback, comments, questions, shoutouts and suggestions.

And give some thought to the following: Which result drivers make the most significant impact, and which are the most volatile ones?confi