Book excerpt: Too many organizations invest in performance management and business intelligence projects, without first establishing the needed conditions to ensure success. But the organizations that lay the groundwork for effective change first reap the benefits. In Profiles in Performance: Business Intelligence Journeys and the Road Map for Change, Howard Dresner (author of The Performance Management Revolution) worked with several extraordinary organizations to understand their thriving "performance-directed culture." In doing so, he developed a unique maturity model-which served as both a filter to select candidates and as a lens to examine accomplishments. Interviews with people from all sides of the organization: business users, finance, senior management and the IT department Provides a complete picture of their progress from inception to current state The models, analyses and real world accounts from these cases will be an invaluable resource to any organization hoping to improve or initiate their own performance-directed culture.