Rapid results initiatives make it more likely that a project will be successful by reducing three types of risk:

• execution risk—the risk that tasks will not be carried out properly

• white space risk—the risk that some key tasks are not included in the project

• integration risk—the risk that the tasks cannot be brought together.

Rapid results initiatives differ from prototypes, pilots or proof-of-concepts. Prototypes give an organization experience with a predefined solution—a reporting tool, for example. They reduce execution risk by applying the tool in a smaller project. They are shorter than a rapid results initiative—typically a few weeks long and do not have a specific business goal.

We carried out a rapid results initiative at an asset-based finance company. The senior management wanted to give their managers better information to improve performance. Working with the senior management team, we identified a mission critical information need. The organization had recently added several new members of the sales staff and wanted to double the dollar value of deals financed.

KMA worked with the organization’s IT managers and sales managers on two rapid results initiatives. In the first, we identified a set of key sales measures

• sales pipeline in dollars and number of deals by stage and by deal type (e.g., debt, equity)

• sales hit rate (percentage of deals closed by pipeline stage)

• sales cycle time (time to move deal from one stage in pipeline to the next)

• gap analysis (comparison of pipeline to yearly sales goal)

We extracted key data from the company’s sales tracking system and built a sample scorecard. We used software that the client already had—SQL Server, Excel and PowerPoint. This greatly reduced the time needed to carry out this rapid results initiative.

Based on this mini-project, senior managers learned a great deal about the sales process and took action to reduce cycle time and hit rate. This short project itself was a success. The project was completed in about two months.

We also identified the white space—the measures and dimensions that needed to be included in the monthly reporting system. For example, a sales lost chart was added to the report. The report documented each major sales loss by its final sales pipeline stage.

This led to the second rapid results initiative, in which we built a monthly reporting system. The team determined that SQL Server, Excel and PowerPoint were appropriate tools for the monthly reporting system. The second project also was completed in about two months.

Rapid results initiatives are a powerful approach to implementing projects, including business intelligence and also knowledge management systems, that involve solving complex and not well-defined business problems.