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Treating Symptoms vs. Curing Diseases
One of my biggest frustrations is my back problems. Event though my doctors have prescribed exercise and medicine, I am frequently in pain. I am frustrated due to my inability to treat the actual problem, Spondylolis Thesis. Regardless of the amount of pills I take or the exercises I perform, nothing I do will cure my Spondylolis Thesis. All I can do is treat the symptoms and ease the pain. As time goes on, it is likely to continue getting worse.
Unfortunately for me, I cannot treat my true back problem. Yet this is rarely the case in business. Although it is almost always easier to treat the symptoms (e.g. borrowing additional money to make up for cash shortfalls, firing problematic employees), it is much more productive to treat the disease. How can you differentiate between treating symptoms and curing the disease?
For our clients, we do it in a number of ways. We analyze timely and accurate financial statements, which is a key indicator of overall financial health of a business. We utilize a robust activity-based budget to identify specific problem areas. We also utilize employee scorecards to identify problematic departments and employees. Here are a few additional suggestions:
- Identify the source – Look for areas/people that are consistently causing problems. If you have a reoccurring employee turnover issue in a certain division of your business, hiring someone new might not solve anything. Survey your employees and investigate other possibilities.
- Treat the disease – Now that you have identified the problem, focus on effectively treating that issue. If your employee turnover rate was found to occur because of a lack of training, focus on implementing a new training program AND hiring a replacement (remember symptoms can kill you to!)
- Maintain a healthy business – Once you have successfully cured the diseases, focus on staying healthy. Consistently monitoring your results and taking corrective actions will keep your business strong. Think of this as taking your vitamins to prevent additional diseases.
Following these steps will help your business live a long and healthy life.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Comments (7)
Saul Ahmad
April 8th, 2010 at 10:01 am
We have to be aware that business models keep on changing. There was an era of decentralized banking. Then we had centralization. Every bank from the US to the Middle and the Far East was rushing towards centralization in the 90s. Centralization was the “next big thing”. Post economic melt down, there are proposals that perhaps decentralized regime was better and indeed some banks are heading towards total decentralization again, with many experimenting with partial decentralization.
The changes in business models also bring in new diseases and new symptoms. The cure should change too.
Eneni Oduwole
April 8th, 2010 at 10:02 am
You treat a symptom by picking early warning signals and identifying related causative factors. Thereafter, points of correlation would be ascertained and procedures for ensuring that suitable solutions are implemented put in place. Then, relevant structures that would closely monitor relevant processes to prevent a recurrence would have to be put in place.
On the otherhand, solving an actual problem involves fire-fighting and reactive resolutions which in most cases may not be the most cost efficient and effective business methods of redress. Nonetheless, when a problem is identified, it is best to fix it in the most cost efficient way as fast as possible to avoid loss build-up or reputational damage to the organisation.
Regards,
Eneni
Maria Marsala
April 8th, 2010 at 10:05 am
I hate bandaids. But sometimes, for a variety of reasons, you need to put a few on before you get to the bottom of the problem.
Rahul Magan
April 8th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Treating Symtoms is possible once you are having the ability to predict the same else there is no point to it , today USD is about to crash but all the Financial world is thinking that US will revive and will do the payoff of the entire $ 20 Trillion of the National debt at one go and thinking that they have cured the sympots and there would not be any need of Curing Diseases bt we are waiting for the second since we are not selecing the 2nd Reserve Currency of the world and waiting for the better days of US which will never come and here in we are having the sympoms but we are not be able to cure the same so that is something that is going in practica terms …..
Stuart Rosenberg
April 11th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Impossibe to cure one without the other. When a company has an overrun of inventory is Purchasing the sole culprit or is it also production? How about the inventory management personnel? If inventory management does not ‘allow’ production to see the pipeline then production assumes the worst of inventory and ‘runs; immediately to purchasing. Does purchasing re-check before ordering the items? Each depasrtment is at fault for their lack of due diligence. I have witnessed many times after a purchase the inventory thought to be in the facility but not found turns up. Is this lack of communication a sympton or a disease? My point being unless we spent time delving into the issues we merely are playing a guessing game. So to fix the problem as soon as fast as possible is in my eyes masking our ability to get at the core of both.
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