If the Numbers Don't Add Up, They Probably Don't

Following a global financial crisis that has left governments floundering, business managers have lost confidence in both bankers’ and politicians’ ability to reverse downward spirals in economic performance at country level.

This in turn is causing middle management to have to choose between denial and confusion as they attempt to move the business forward, where many of the numbers no longer appear to count.

Given that denial is obviously no longer a viable option, it remains for NAMs and KAMs to attempt to make workable sense of the unprecedented chaos in the market, as a basis for building customer strategies that have some chance of delivering acceptable returns on investment, while others naively await some guidance from the system…

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OTSW - a SWOT tool for mixed-up times?

Because SWOT is spelled that way, users tend to start with Strengths, attempt to eliminate Weaknesses, explore Opportunities and obsess on Threats, in that order.

For the past 30 years I have been applying the technique as OTSW, based on the logic that Opportunities and Threats are outside the business, are independent of it and transient, whilst Strengths are not absolute, but are relative to Opportunities. Threats are outside restraints that simply need to be factored into the exercise.

Weaknesses need not be terminal, but simply need their ability to dilute strengths constrained. Attempting to eliminate weaknesses takes precious time, and at best creates a ‘perfect’ organisation for an opportunity that has moved on….

A ‘new’ tool for crazy times!

Know any SWOTs who might benefit from a switch to OTSW?