Shake Down Your Business Reports.

Are you in danger of blinding yourself to the possibilities your business may engage with by bounding your reality by the information you see every day in your reports?

Many of you will have suffered through a broken relationship at some time of your life. During the term of the relationship, your whole world is centered around this person. When that person leaves your life, there is a sense of total loss, as though you have lost everything else you associated with that person or interacted with through that person. In reality, there are many other people in the world through which you could share the same experiences. However, during the moment of your loss, you become blinded to such possibilities. In other words, this one person gradually became a filter through which you viewed your own life. The same thing can happen in business with reports. You gradually come to view your business through the perspective of the data you see reported daily, weekly, monthly etc. Your reality can become bounded by the scope of your reports.

The danger is that your current reports were first created based on a reality that existed at one time. We all know how quickly the business environment is changing - and whilst you may add to your report library based on new products or markets - most businesses typically only add dimensions.

When you engage with a new reporting solution, there is a danger that you will merely recreate all your existing reports. In adopting this approach, you are dragging all your old boundaries of reality with you. However, if you allow yourself to change your reports - you change the boundaries of possibility and reality.

This is a great time to zero-base your business. Pretend you are just starting out and ask yourself:

What needs in the market could be fulfilled with a solution that we could create and sell profitably? What would we need to know to determine the likely success of these products and services? Could these products and services be delivered through our existing sales and distribution channel, and if so, at what cost?

As you work your way through these fundamental questions, you open your eyes [and minds] to fresh possibilities. You also identify what new metrics you should be monitoring with your current products and services. Don’t fall into the trap of just recreating your existing reports in the new system. Look at the information the reports contain, and ask if it is supporting the decisions you should be asking yourself today.

The market is littered with companies who took their eyes off the ball, who limited their perspective by the constraints of the information they engaged in every day. Instead, break from the herd and ask yourself what other perspective could we be looking at our markets from, our products, our capabilities? Look for signals on the horizon, for transitions in the market and get creative about how you view things. Move from analysing the past to analysing the future.

Don't be lulled into a false sense of security because you have a business plan and a strategy - unless your plan and strategy are based on what is happening right now, and is most likely to happen in the future. Don't get caught up in the success of today at the expense of success in the future.

Step outside yourself. Step outside your current reports. Engage with the full sphere of reality.