For me particularly the greatest difficulty was in understanding what was going on, and how people's effort was contributing to the company's goals. There always seems to be a lot of activity on individual tasks, and project managers will take strong interest in making sure that their project is on track, but higher up the chain of management I have always had trouble seeing where all the pieces fit together.
I would love if it was possible to have attributed to everything that is done in a company an array with scores that will indicate how well that effort is a fit for the company's goals. Then it would be simply a matter of having sensible metrics and an easy way to get the information. I imagine that's what KPIs are supposed to be doing, but somehow there doesn't seem to exist an easy to implement strategy for making them effortlessly intuitive and useful.
I would love if it was possible to have attributed to everything that is done in a company an array with scores that will indicate how well that effort is a fit for the company's goals. Then it would be simply a matter of having sensible metrics and an easy way to get the information. I imagine that's what KPIs are supposed to be doing, but somehow there doesn't seem to exist an easy to implement strategy for making them effortlessly intuitive and useful.