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Possible Solutions
Now that you have an understanding of the common challenges and mistakes
that organizations face when working with nonfinancial controls, including the
omission of them entirely, you have the foundation for understanding how to use

them effectively. For organizations that manage well with nonfinancial controls, the
benefits definitely outweigh the costs. Since we outlined five possible areas for
mistakes, let’s work briefly through five possible solution areas.
Use Nonfinancial Controls
As we mentioned earlier in this section, the delayed and historic nature of
financial controls makes it risky to rely on them alone. Step back and reflect on the
organization’s strategy, then pick one or several nonfinancial controls such as
customer or employee satisfaction as a starting point. It is critical that you start with a
conceptual model using simple boxes and arrows in terms of what nonfinancial
control leads to another, and so on.
The following figure shows a working model of these relationships for a retail
store that sells unique products. This leads us to our second solution.
Sample Mix of Nonfinancial and Financial Controls

Tie the Controls to the Strategy
Be sure to confirm that whichever nonfinancial controls are in place, they
reflect and reinforce the unique strategy of the organization. This also should remind
you that, if the strategy ever changes, you should go back and revalidate the links
between the nonfinancial controls and the strategy. For instance, in our retail store
example, part of the strategy is to sell unique products, which means that employees
with particular work experience and education may provide better customer service
than inexperienced employees. If the store changed its strategy to sell more generic
products, however, it might not need such experienced or educated employees
anymore.

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