Interpretive Business Analysis
Preface: The right analysis of the marketplace positioning of your business is vital its future. However, you need the right information to arrive at the right conclusion to the analysis. You need a system for the process of gathering that information, analyzing it, and making the right conclusion. This article is not designed to show you how to design that system; it’s to make you aware of the importance of that system.
Appropriate interpretive business analysis is probably the most effective methods of developing your key business metrics. This is simply discovering and doing more of the tasks that give your business an edge in marketplace, and fewer of the tasks that don’t. It is analysis of your true corporate competencies; and working on tasks that give you a competitive advantage, i.e. expertise, aptitude, or interest. It will improve your businesses value perception in the marketplace and forge a solid future.
Interpretive business analysis in the context of this article, is the feedback from others, e.g. advisors, managements, front-line staff, to understand and then harness your true corporate competencies and competitive advantages. Sometimes you just haven’t yet acknowledged what your true business edge or competitive advantage is, e.g. talents.
If you invest in appropriate interpretive business analysis, with time, you will improve not only financial performance, but also fulfillment in the day-to-day activities of your team. Interpretive business analysis will spotlight where you need improve or acquire additional expertise; or tasks you need to avoid entirely. It will also identify where your expertise and intellectual inventory is overlooked or understocked.
Is anything inhibiting your business? Are you plateaued at $2m or $10m of revenue a year. In interpretive business analysis, observation and planning are only one piece of entrée. Practical implementation, teamwork and business environments are all parts to optimizing your business.
Let’s look at teamwork for a moment. Engineers may be pleased with the fact that managing people is not their forte. Engineers engineer. The marketing department may not be concerned with the fact that they lack the expertise to manufacturing or install a product. Specializing has strengths, it has weaknesses too. Teamwork is vital. Mr. Rishell is quoted as saying, “Every problem in your business is a people problem”. When you look at your business, if there’s a problem, what is the root cause? Ignorance of this fact can be expensive. Not only in the forfeited opportunity(s); but repeated pull on momentum . Let’s say you don’t know if your employees are listeners or readers? How do you and your team learn? Does it really get that simple, you say?
Working with your team in their preferred medium, or your employees working with you in your preferred medium will result in higher performance. You’ll communicate more effectively. Interpretive business analysis will help you discover simple, effective adjustments in your business that will lead to more cohesiveness of observation, planning, implementation, team work. Together this will bring a better business environment to the workplace. Last, but not least. What are your values? Time after time, adhering to the values of a business founder has resulted in not only success, but plain success – people talking about what the business has accomplished and – how customers and clients feel from working with the team.
It is not uncommon for people to need an advisor to help them think through decisions. Once the decision is made, they can then act; with speed, and in confidence. We’re not advocating changing yourself, that’s unlikely to be successful. We’re advocating understanding how you and your team work best; and what medium works best for you and your business team, from a system of appropriate feedback.
Summary: Interpretive business analysis is a system of feedback from appropriate sources, i.e. advisors, management; and identifying the competitive edge in your business and its resources, e.g. the people. The system of interpretive business analysis will take time to refine, yet is key to forging a solid future for your business. This is simply discovering and doing more of the tasks that give your business an edge in marketplace, and fewer of the tasks that don’t. It begins with an awareness of developing or applying that system.