How Do You Solve Business Problems?
Author: Naz Daud
Running a business creates many problems that are unique to
each business. The first step in solving a problem is by asking
revealing questions and understanding the symptoms.
What are the symptoms of the problem? Often in business many
managers spend a lot of time dealing with symptoms of a problem
whilst totally ignoring the cause of the symptoms. Attempting to
solve only the symptoms whilst not truly appreciating the core
problem can lead to even greater trouble in the longer term.
Let us examine a situation whereby my previous business had
declining sales. Therefore the fall in sales was a symptom and
we now had to get to the root cause. Why were our sales
declining? Was our product not as good as the competitors? Were
our methods of generating sales inferior to our competitors?
Were our customers leaving us because we were not able to meet
their delivery deadlines?
We used to supply a large electronics company with packaging.
Gradually over time they started buying less and less. When I
investigated the problem it actually turned out that our guy who
was in charge of liaising with that customer did not get on too
well with the head of production in the electronics company that
actually used our packaging.
Now the head of production did not have any authority to do any
buying but because he did not get on at all with our man due to
previous history… he wanted his company to change suppliers. He
was actually trying to find weaknesses in our products where
none existed.
The symptom was declining sales. The problem had nothing to do
with prices, quality or delivery. Rather it was purely created
due to the inability of our man being able to communicate with
their head of production!
Once the core problem was understood we focused on building
good relationships with the head of production. Now we had a
girl in our office who worked solely in distribution but it so
turned out that she was a good friend of this chap. We changed
her role so that only she liaised with this guy in production.
Sales with our customer rose very quickly and soon were back to
their normal levels.
So the first step in solving a problem in business is to
identify all the symptoms. Once the symptoms have been well
defined and investigated then we can start searching for the
underlying problem.
When we have identified the problem then by further analysis we
can come to a solution that works well and deals with the core
issues.
Do you have a business problem? What are the symptoms? How did
they appear and in what time frame? Are the symptoms related?
Don't try and solve the symptoms rather focus on the problem.
What is the underlying problem? How can you best deal with it
effectively?
How did the problem occur? When did it first occur? What
weaknesses did it identify in your business model? How do you
overcome this weakness? How do you solve the underlying problem
so that the symptoms disappear completely?
About The Author: Naz Daud is the Founder of the CityLocal
Internet Business Franchise Opportunity.
http://www.citylocal.co.uk
http://www.citylocal.co.uk
http://www.citylocal.ie
http://www.ecademy.com/account
