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AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO BUSINESS GAP ANALYSIS – BASIL SPRINGER COLUMN WHICH APPEARED IN THE BARBADOS ADVOCATE’S BUSINESS MONDAY ON JANUARY 30, 2012
 
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” – Psalm 119:105
 
In many aspects of life, we are often faced with the challenge of measuring “where we are” and prescribing, based on some international standard, “where we ought to be”. If there is a gap then we need to close the gap. Business Gap Analysis is a tool that helps businesses compare actual performance with potential performance.

I remember going to a complementary medicine practitioner about 10 years ago and being introduced to Quantitative Fluid Analysis as a standard routine prior to each visit.
 
According to the Institute of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (ICAM) in Amarillo, Texas, the theory of Biological Terrain was formulated by Dr. Claude Bernard over 100 years ago. The theory ascertains that illness and disease are primarily caused by imbalances in the body’s interstitial environment. The Biological Terrain or “Milieu Interior” is the interstitial fluid that bathes and nourishes the body’s trillions of cells. The outer wall of every cell, the cell membrane, is permeable to several different elements and consequently allows these elements to flow freely in and out of this membrane.

Due to the fact that the Biological Terrain is fluid that is continuously circulating throughout the body, its components are used to produce energy in the form of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to supply essential nutrients for the body to function optimally, and to create the biological fluids: blood, saliva, lymph and urine. Imbalances in the chemistry of the Biological Terrain may therefore affect the composition of the body’s biological fluids. Assessing the biological fluids therefore, provides an efficient way to monitor certain aspects of the underlying biochemical state of the body. As a result, these biological fluids may provide valuable information as to what is happening at the deepest cellular level.
 
Quantitative Fluid Analysis (QFA) monitors your saliva, urine and blood for pH, redox and resistivity. This 3×3 matrix is a Gap Analysis tool that helps practitioners get an overview of the biochemical makeup of your body, organ function and the body’s utilization of enzymes, amino acids and minerals.

I was very impressed how, after each visit, the health care professional was able to make an analysis of the gap in each cell in the 3×3 matrix and prescribe holistic therapy, including nutraceuticals, to gradually reduce the gap in each cell and collectively the gap over the whole matrix. After several weeks, this health care professional was able to conclude that I moved from my initial state of Grade 3 health to Grade 1 health, which is the best that I could hope for.  

Last week we invited a number of enterprises to be introduced to The Management of Business Matrixâ„¢ as a gap analysis tool. It was intended that this tool would assist the enterprises to improve their business health.

The theory of Management of Business states that business is driven by the five functions: corporate governance, marketing, operations, leading and control; and that the elements of management (planning, organising, staffing, leading and monitoring), if well applied, mitigate the risk of business failure.
 
The theory ascertains that illness and disease in business are primarily caused by a weakness in one or more of the management elements. Good management or shepherding nourishes the intricate systems and restores the enterprise to good business health.  

The Management of Business Matrix (5×5) is a Gap Analysis tool that helps practitioners get an overview of the profile of the business.  
In business and economics, gap analysis is a tool that helps companies compare actual performance with potential performance. At its core are two questions: “Where are we?” and “Where do we want to be?” If a company or organization does not make the best use of current resources, or foregoes investment in capital or technology, it may produce or perform below its potential. This concept is similar to the base case of being below the production possibilities frontier.
 
Gap analysis identifies gaps between the optimized allocation and integration of the inputs (resources), and the current allocation level. This reveals areas that can be improved. Gap analysis involves determining, documenting, and approving the variance between business requirements and current capabilities. Gap analysis naturally flows from benchmarking and other assessments. Once the general expectation of performance in the industry is understood, it is possible to compare that expectation with the company’s current level of performance. This comparison becomes the gap analysis. Such analysis can be performed at the strategic or operational level of an organization. Gap analysis is a formal study of what a business is doing currently and where it wants to go in the future.
 
We last Thursday mounted a Management of Business Matrixâ„¢ workshop. I was very happy to respond to individual’s concerns about the functions of business and how they might strengthen the chances of success by systematically addressing the elements of management.  
We expected that after each visit to the shepherd, the shepherd would be able to make an analysis of the gap in each cell in the 5×5 matrix and prescribe holistic therapy, including specific solutions, which will be recorded in the workshop guidelines document, to gradually reduce the gap in each cell and collectively the gap over the whole matrix.
 
After several weeks, the shepherd should be able to conclude that the business moved from its initial state to Grade 1 health, and then use that as a spring board to expand the business and grow the economy.
  
(Dr. Basil Springer GCM is Change-Engine Consultant, Caribbean Business Enterprise Trust Inc. – CBET – Columns are archived at www.cbetmodel.org).

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