Monthly board reporting

The operating board of a £1bn-turnover business was frustrated with the poor quality of its monthly meeting pack and asked us to recommend changes.

We agreed and implemented changes, then put in place an integrated suite of reports, leaving the board, central functions and operating companies with a clear, common view of business performance.

The problem

The pack was 200 pages long, assembled from many areas of the business and without a clear structure - a budget variance of £500 on page 7 and one of £500,000 on page 125. It was impossible to understand the priorities without wading through the entire pack. Meetings took a full day, often the evening too, and clear decisions were hard to come by. Because the large pack took time to assemble, meetings took place three weeks after month end.

What we did

We worked with the Finance and other Directors to define clearly the purpose of the monthly board meeting and how it related to weekly meetings and functional reviews. We mapped the processes and timescales involved in gathering data and identified ways to produce good information faster.

We compared the content of the pack to the priorities of the business and the meeting, and defined a hierarchy of measures and information, with the key performance metrics first and other measures presented by exception.

We then added the main missing piece - analysis. The Finance team identified the main issues from the data, performed further analysis and presented the board with insight into the business rather than simply spreadsheets.

The report was produced, used and refined for a couple of months, then a set of Excel and PowerPoint templates put in place to allow it to be rapidly and reliably produced each month.

What happened

The report was reduced to 30 pages, with a clear executive summary and a 'pyramid' structure leading from the main issues through to the detail.

The board meeting now takes 2 hours. And is held 2 weeks earlier, just a week after the month end. Decisions are informed, taken earlier and have improved business performance.

We were asked to repeat the process and create similar reports for each of the functions, which now feed the board report in a structured and consistent manner.