Business results are the measured outputs and outcomes an organization generates. They fall into the following categories

• Customer Results - What the organisation is achieving in relation to its external customers

• People Results -What the organisation is achieving in relation to its people

• Society Results - What the organisation is achieving in satisfying the needs of the local, national and international society, as appropriate

• Key Performance Results - What the organisation is achieving in relation to its planned performance

The performance of organizations is often judged on financial results but these are outcomes rather than outputs. In other words the impact of the organization's outputs. Typical financial measures are

• share price

• dividends

• gross margins

• net profit

• turnover

• return on equity

• return on net assets

These are only part of the picture. There are many standard ratios used to evaluate the overall financial condition of an organization. Learn more about financial ratios at Wikipedia

There is no process within an organization that produces these outputs. They arise from the impact of the process outputs many months or even years after the outputs have been produced. E.g. if the products and services satisfy customers in a manner that satisfies the other stakeholders it is likely this will eventually have a positive effect on the financial results. But should the reverse occur, it will eventually have a negative effect on the financial results. However, one cannot tweak the net profit or any other result other than by unethical means except for share price which can be affected by circumstances outside the organization's control.

One could analyse the financial results and work back through the processes to discover what caused them but this is impractical as many of the activities, products or service that caused the results might no longer be carried out or produced.

A more practical approach is to examine the processes to establish that the processes objectives are being achieved and that these objectives as measured are aligned with the needs and expectation of the stakeholders. What one often finds is that the processes are not achieving the objectives, that the measures being used are not appropriate and the objectives themselves are not derived from stakeholder needs and expectations