Americanics

A solution can be almost everything. An answer to a problem. The outcome of a complex equation. In business however, you can solve issues by finding solutions in areas like:

• Human resources

• Systems

• Infrastructure.

In any of those areas you should ask three questions regarding the best (type) of solution:

Are we the first? Is our company really different? What is our focus?

Here are some examples:

• An issue in the human resource area could be the remuneration policy, which is found to be unsatisfied (this is the case when market conditions are good). Solving this problem for a group of employees or for the whole organization could be done by raising the main salary — the fixed part — or the incentives — performance based — remunerations. In addition, you could think of extra benefit programs.
• Also in the systems area you could think of a solution for a problem; your production (and purchase) process requires more and more external suppliers. Chaining suppliers in an electronic way could be a solution.
• The infrastructure of your company is like a patchwork quilt. Your company could benefit from synergies if services would be more shared. There isn’t really a standard infrastructure. The various business units have set their own standard. They all work with different systems and each system is optimized under a different infrastructure.

The three questions will help you determine which kind of solution to choose. Are we the first in reorganizing our HR policy? What have others done in this area? What is the best practice?

A proprietary solution is a solution that your company owns.

A few years ago, I heard our CEO say, “You don’t have to own the cow, as long as you can buy the milk.”

A standard solution can do when you accept that in this particular issue, you will follow the market (closely). This gives you energy to focus on solutions that are not standard because you want to be the first.

And different!

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.
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