This is Part 3 of our Storytelling with Context. Before, I have described an example from the Corporate world. It requires us to review the performance of one KPI – Revenue growth. We have already reviewed Internal Performance. Now it is time to look at the second part of the larger Context – Internal Relative Performance.

Whenever we are suppose to access a performance, we need to compare it against “something or someone”. In the “Internal Performance” we have compared it vs. Forecast or Internal Outlook. But there is much more than that. When thinking about Internal Relative Performance, we should think about the following areas:

• Comparison versus Prior Year is usually referred to as Y/Y, YY or YoY. It helps to understand the growth of the business while taking into account seasonality. In terms of seasonality, we achieve the results in the same period. This occurs mainly under the same external conditions. These conditions include school holidays, Christmas, the government’s last budget quarter, the same weather, etc.

• Comparison versus the Prior Quarter, usually referred to as Q/Q, QQ or QoQ represents the direction of the performance. It is mainly used in “recovery” times. This usage helps us decide if the business is recovering from the bad season, loss, or revenue decline.

• Comparison versus other Internal Sections/Segments of the company. This includes the same region or Route to Market for similar Products. It also involves categories with a comparable structure, audience, competition, market, customer base, etc. Putting things into context reveals the actual performance vs. internal “competition.”