Here listed below are detailed explanations of each step plus an example for each.

1. State the business problem or issue as clearly and fully as possible. Focus on getting to the root issue. (See our related tool: “Issue Mapping.Noting a sign of a bigger and more sophisticated problem will eventually leave you feeling lost.

2. Speculate an approach which will best solve the problem. For example, the problem might be the decline of the company's sales as oppose to the steadiness of the competitor's. We don’t know whether it’s a problem with our sales staff or a problem with our product.” In this case, you might decide to hire an outside firm to conduct a survey of your customers to discover how they perceive the problem.

3. Distinguish the premises which relate to the cited solution. In this example, the assumptions would be: "We believe that the grassroots of our problems can be easily identified by our own customers.And we believe that what additional problems we may encounter is within our capacity to resolved.”

4. Conduct research on those assumptions before investing money on such. If the raw solution manage to go by the first round of analysis, then prepare for a more careful inspection. For example, after visiting five accounts you must then weight the possibility of and profitability of continuing hiring an outside firm for the job.

5. Rediscover the problems and the solutions based on the findings reported by the analysis. Afterwards repeat the whole process again and again until you've achieve your desired results. After your initial breakdown, it may unfold that the problem has a relation with the company's overall strategic planning.

6. Reiterate the process (redefining the problem and the solution) until there is agreement that the possible incremental improvement in the solution is no longer worth the incremental cost. For instance, your staff may take careful analysis on the effect on profitability of two scenarios: Instituting a consumer education program and carrying out an image campaign. The conclusion: Investments in consumer education may be a financial burden but the effects of such with regards to sales will only be realized after one year.

This article was written by the business management consultants at Leading Resources. Helping leaders create high performance organizations.

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