How would you know the success of your strategy / project without implementing any monitoring or evaluation?

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) play a key part in ensuring good results are delivered as planned. It is important for adaptive planning and execution of strategies and projects.

Why monitor and evaluate?

• To assess stakeholders understanding of the project
• To minimize risk of the project failing
• To assess progress of implementation
• To keep track of resources by reviewing how much you have at each milestone and how much is needed for the next.
• Promotes systematic and professional management

How is monitoring done?

• Physical and financial monitoring: measuring progress of project activities against schedules and indicators of success.
• Process monitoring: Identifying factors accounting for progress of activities or success of output production
• Impact monitoring: Measuring the initial responses and reactions to project activities and their immediate short-term effects

Think of an oil marketing company. The company may decide to re-brand for one reason or another and will need to also re-strategize in order to informatively pick a brand identity and develop a communication and marketing strategy that will reach and attract their target market.

With all these in place and successfully being rolled out, the company will then invest in monitoring the staff to see whether the new culture is being successfully integrated into the day-to-day business especially around their fuel stations. They may also look at the new look and whether it is raising any interest in the market. The communication monitoring and evaluation will be key in letting the company know whether they are reaching the correct audience, in the most effective channels with the message they need to hear in order to interact with their brand.

Without M&E, a brand can end up throwing good money after bad – meaning, investing so much in reaching the market but not being as effective as they intended.

At Brand Integrated Consulting, we recognize that monitoring and evaluation are very important at ensuring the success of any strategy or project. Contact us and our Analytics and Strategy Divisions will reach out, so we can ensure your strategies are delivering what they should, how they can be improved, and if necessary, identify the changes that need to be made.

The author is a Partner Consultant in the Strategy Division at BI. You can reach her on joyce.waithira@brandintegrated.com