Business Consulting
Sometimes the issue you're looking at is only one part of the situation.
Business issues do not always sit neatly inside one function. A marketing issue may be affected by customer experience, internal processes, capacity or positioning. A recurring operational issue may connect to systems, responsibilities, communication or commercial decisions.
The Why sits before the brief. Rather than beginning with a predetermined solution, the work looks across the relevant parts of the business to understand what is affecting what, bring structure to the situation, and help determine what needs attention now, what should happen next, and what may not need changing.
Looking at the situation in context
What first appears to be the issue may be only one part of the situation. I look at what is happening around it, how the relevant parts of the business connect, and what those connections mean for the decisions that follow.
What's happening
What are you seeing or experiencing in the business?
What's shaping it
What circumstances, decisions, pressures or constraints are contributing to the situation?
What it connects to
Which other parts of the business are affected, or affecting it?
What matters most
Of everything we've uncovered, what actually needs attention?
What makes sense next
What should happen now, what can wait, and what may not need changing at all?
There isn't a template answer, but there is a disciplined way of getting to one.
The work isn't based on guessing what might be wrong or applying the same framework to every business.
I gather the relevant context, question the assumptions around the situation, look at how different parts of the business are affecting one another and test whether the explanation in front of us actually fits what is happening.
That can mean following an issue across customers, people, processes, systems, suppliers, marketing, money or decisions. It also means considering what a proposed change could affect elsewhere before recommending it.
Sometimes that confirms the issue is exactly where you thought it was. Sometimes it shows that other factors are contributing to it. And sometimes the most useful conclusion is that a particular part of the business does not need changing at all.
The aim is not to produce an impressive-sounding answer. It is to reach a commercially useful one that can stand up to questioning.
Principles that guide the reasoning
Context before conclusion
Understand enough of the situation before deciding what it means.
Assumptions get tested
Separate what is known from what has simply come to be accepted.
Connections matter
Look at what else may be influencing the issue, or being influenced by it.
Consequences matter too
Consider what today's decision could affect elsewhere in the business or further down the track.
The recommendation has to be useful
An interesting observation is not enough. It needs to translate into something the business can realistically act on.
The work is exploratory, but it isn't arbitrary.
The obvious request may not be the whole picture
This becomes easier to understand when you see how an apparently straightforward request can connect to the wider business situation.
Our marketing isn't working.
The immediate response might be to change the marketing. But performance can also be affected by what customers experience, how the offer is positioned, whether the business can consistently deliver, or what happens when an enquiry arrives.
Everything relies on me.
The immediate response might be to delegate or hire. But the pressure can also be connected to unclear responsibilities, processes that live in one person's head, systems that do not support other people, or decisions that have nowhere else to land.
We need to grow.
The immediate focus may be on generating more business. But growth also places pressure on capacity, processes, customer experience and cash flow. Understanding whether the business is ready for that growth matters too.
Knowing when specialist expertise is needed
Looking across the business does not mean trying to be every specialist the business may need. Part of the work is recognising when specialist expertise belongs in the situation and understanding how it connects to everything around it.
That may mean involving an accountant, HR adviser, systems provider or another specialist. My role can include helping clarify what expertise is needed, what problem they are being asked to solve, and how their work fits into the wider direction of the business.
The focus remains on the whole picture, rather than treating one specialist intervention as though it exists in isolation.
Want to see how I think through business situations?
A lot of The Why's articles start with something I've noticed in an ordinary business situation and work through what may actually be happening around it.
If you're trying to understand how I approach situations before deciding whether you'd want me looking at yours, the articles are a good place to start.
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The Assumed Understanding Gap
What happens when businesses assume customers, staff or other people already understand the context sitting behind a message, process or decision?
Read the ArticleQuestions people often have
Start by describing what's happening.
You don't need to arrive with a brief or a ready-made solution in mind.