Every country report I have inherited was longer than the one before it.
Someone adds a line after a difficult quarter. Nobody ever removes one. A few years later the monthly pack has dozens of numbers, and the leadership team reads the first page.
In my experience, a country is better run on about ten.
These are the ten I would watch:
- Sell-out by brand.
- Distributor inventory.
- Net price, after discounts, rebates and bonus goods.
- Gross margin.
- Share in the segments where we chose to compete.
- Listings and tenders, gained, kept and lost.
- Forecast accuracy.
- Coverage of key customers.
- Coaching days in the field.
- Team retention.
Your ten may differ. The test for each one is the same: does it change a decision? If a number moves and nobody would do anything differently, it does not belong on the list.
Three rules keep it honest. Every KPI has one owner who can act on it. The same ten are shared with the whole team, not kept at the top. And everything else is looked up when it is needed, not reported every month.
Fewer numbers means better conversations about each one.
“If a number never changes a decision, stop reporting it.”
Lesson 5 of 10 in Step 8: Execution and the operating rhythm, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.