People, Process, Platform Performance System
Sustain performance by strengthening talent, decisions, and technology together
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 98%
The system organizes a leader's attention around three mutually reinforcing performance drivers. People covers selecting, supporting, developing, and resourcing the specialists who make decisions. Process covers reviewing how results were produced, learning from outcomes, and spreading effective practices across otherwise independent teams. Platform covers the data, analytics, systems, and technology that let experts operate at scale and respond to changes such as artificial intelligence. Neglecting any pillar weakens the others: skilled people cannot scale through poor systems, technology cannot rescue undisciplined decisions, and process becomes bureaucracy if it does not help practitioners. Leaders use recurring reviews and investments across all three pillars to turn institutional knowledge into durable performance and more customized client outcomes.
Origin
Extracted from Masters in Business, where Ashish Shah used people, process, and platform to describe the daily operating priorities of a public-investing CIO.
Core principles
- 01Long-term performance depends on people, process, and platform together
- 02Leaders must invest in practitioners and their resources
- 03Process reviews should spread best practices
- 04Platforms require active investment rather than passive outsourcing
- 05Technology and data should amplify expert judgment
How to run it
- 1
Anchor on performance
Begin with current results and the prior period's decisions so leadership attention remains tied to the organization's mission.
Pro tip Review both headline outcomes and the drivers beneath them.
Watch out Do not let short-term results become the sole measure of process quality.
- 2
Invest in people
Meet practitioners regularly to understand their focus, development, constraints, and resource requirements.
Pro tip Ask what would improve decision quality rather than merely increase activity.
Watch out Treating talent as interchangeable erodes expertise and trust.
- 3
Review the process
Examine how teams reached decisions and identify practices that should be corrected or shared.
Pro tip Compare methods across teams, not just their final performance numbers.
Watch out Avoid reviews that become blame exercises after losses.
- 4
Spread institutional learning
Move useful insights across organizational boundaries and incorporate relevant perspectives into future decisions.
Pro tip Create recurring forums with clear governance for sharing knowledge.
Watch out Independent teams can become isolated silos without deliberate exchange.
- 5
Strengthen the platform
Invest continually in systems, data, and analytics that increase expert capacity and improve delivery.
Pro tip Prioritize tools that free specialists to focus on high-value judgment.
Watch out Wholesale outsourcing can leave the organization unable to keep pace with market innovation.
- 6
Integrate the pillars
Evaluate major initiatives by their effects on talent, decision processes, technical capabilities, and client outcomes together.
Pro tip Assign an owner and measurable outcome to improvements in each pillar.
Watch out Optimizing one pillar in isolation can simply move the bottleneck elsewhere.
In the wild
An asset manager wants to offer customized portfolios to smaller accounts. Leaders train and resource investment teams, review portfolio-construction and tax-management processes, and invest in data and analytics that automate repeatable work. The platform scales institutional practices while specialists retain control over consequential decisions.
→ Clients receive more individualized portfolios without sacrificing investment quality or overwhelming the team.
Common mistakes
Managing only the people pillar
Hiring strong practitioners without improving processes and systems leaves performance dependent on isolated individuals.
Outsourcing strategic capability
Treating systems as a commodity can prevent the organization from adapting its data and analytics to new market conditions.
Reviewing outcomes without decisions
Performance numbers alone do not reveal whether the underlying process was sound or transferable.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for leaders of knowledge-intensive organizations that must scale expertise while adapting to rapid technological change.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for a one-person operation with no meaningful team, repeatable workflow, or technical platform.
From the transcript
“And then from there it's really going to go around three things that deliver performance over the long haul, which is people, process and platform.”
“We're constantly doing performance and process reviews across our different strategies, and really the goal there is to make sure that our team members are…”
“The only way to keep up and deliver strong performance going forward is going to be to be investing in your data and analytics”
From the episode
Goldman Sachs Ashish Shah on Reading the Market With AI and Technology
Ashish Shah