Understanding key performance indicator systems, identifying structural trends, and effectively managing a company

The year is shaping up well. Revenue is growing, and EBIT is up from last year. The obvious conclusion: Business is booming; everything is on track.
But is the company really growing in a healthy way, or is its structure deteriorating even as the absolute numbers rise?
In practice, both scenarios are possible at the same time. A company can increase revenue and profit and still earn less for every euro it makes than it did before. Absolute figures show whether a company is growing. Only the key metrics reveal whether that growth is worthwhile.

In this free live webinar, we’ll use a concrete real-world example to demonstrate how you can use key metrics to gain insight into your company’s true state, identify structural trends early on, and build a solid foundation for your management practices.

What the webinar is about

The focus is on a hypothetical company that is not tied to any specific industry. A look at the absolute figures reveals what many reports also show: revenue is rising, profits are rising, and everything appears stable. But what lies behind this picture?

Using this example, we’ll show why absolute numbers obscure a company’s structural condition and which key metrics reveal its actual performance. We’ll demonstrate live in Corporate Planner how key performance indicators—such as the cost of goods sold ratio, gross profit margin, and EBIT margin—evolve over time, how to distinguish between healthy growth and a gradual deterioration, and which metrics actually drive a company’s performance.

The key is a clear management logic: Which metric sheds light on what’s happening within the company? Where is a structural trend emerging that requires early attention? And how do you manage a company based on ratios rather than being lulled into a false sense of security by absolute values? In addition, we provide an outlook on how artificial intelligence can help in the future to analyze key metrics more quickly and interpret correlations more efficiently.

Typical questions from practice

Many companies have a wide range of key performance indicators, but far fewer have a clear picture of which ones actually drive performance and what they reveal about the state of the business. In this webinar, we’ll therefore address questions that are regularly critical in practice:

• Is my business growing healthily, or just in absolute terms?
• Which key metrics reflect actual profitability?
• Why can revenue and profits increase while the company’s financial structure deteriorates?
• How can I identify a structural trend before it is reflected in the results?
• Do I manage my business based on absolute values or key performance indicators?
• How can artificial intelligence help interpret key performance indicators in the future?

Your advantages in everyday working life

After the webinar, you’ll be able to more clearly distinguish between your company’s absolute and relative performance. You’ll be able to recognize more quickly whether growth is sustainable and where structural changes are beginning to take shape. You’ll gain concrete analytical approaches for your daily work with Corporate Planner and see how key metrics can be evaluated over time in a clear and understandable way in just a few steps. This includes which metrics most effectively reflect profitability, how to identify structural trends early on, and how to shift your management focus from absolute values to effective ratios.

The practical benefit lies primarily in evaluating a company not only based on its growth but also on its actual condition, before absolute figures create a false sense of security.

Who is the webinar suitable for?

This webinar is intended for CFOs, controllers, and managing directors of medium-sized companies who want to align their controlling functions more closely with effective management. It is particularly relevant for companies that want to use their key performance indicators more strategically, identify structural trends earlier, and align their management processes more clearly.

Previous knowledge from the previous modules is not required.

Your benefits at a glance

You will learn,

• Why Absolute Numbers Can Mask a Company’s True Condition
• Which key metrics reveal a company’s true profitability?
• How to Identify Structural Trends Early On
• which analytical approaches have proven effective in day-to-day work
• how to analyze key metrics directly in Corporate Planner using analytical tools
• What role artificial intelligence might play in the future when it comes to interpreting key performance indicators

Part of our webinar series on integrated corporate planning

This webinar is Module 4 in a modular series. The modules build on one another in terms of content, but each can be understood on its own.

Why TD Trusted Decisions?

TD Trusted Decisions supports medium-sized companies in making their planning, reporting and corporate management clearer, more integrated and more decision-oriented.

Our experience shows that the biggest challenge rarely lies in the volume of available data. What matters most is whether the right metrics are being considered—and whether they are interpreted in the right context. Only then can a set of numbers become a reliable basis for management decision-making.

In this webinar, we combine our professional consulting experience with a hands-on, live demonstration in Corporate Planning. This illustrates how integrated planning works in practice and how companies can identify their actual financial position and manage it effectively.