"There's nothing you can tell me about running my business" said the businessman to the consultant.
In our prospecting for new clients, we occasionally come across a response which goes along the lines of “I’ve been in business for x (insert 5, 10, 15) years, there’s nothing I don’t know about running my business.” It may surprise you to learn that the people that say this often become our best clients!
A Strategic Audit is a check on the strategy of the business, not its day to day operations. The fact that a business has survived for a number of years is great, but it is not the complete story in terms of whether it’s going to meet the goals of the owners and stakeholders and/or that its products and services will continue to be valued by its customers.
A Strategic Audit delivers value in three basic ways:
- the process forces you, the client, to step back from the business and take a broader perspective – i.e. working on the business, not just in it;
- it tells you what’s working in your business and most importantly where the areas of improvement lie; and
- it can often identify short-term revenue improvement opportunities.
The purpose of this paper is to give you a flavour of how a strategic audit works. and some pointers on what to look for in your own business.
