Analysis in the business world bears some relation to this anecdote. Seldom are you given a problem, as you are in school, and asked for the answer. More often than not, you must find the problem before solving it. People may refer to those who probe in this way as creators of problems, but we executive-status seekers cannot be bothered with those who are complacent.
You must go at every aspect of your job with the attitude, "Is this the easiest and best way to do this?" You must ask constantly, "Can I produce a better product or service?" You must put everything to the test, "What will this action bring the company in terms of money?" Never be satisfied with the status quo; there is always a better way to do something.
To analyze the problem and find the better way, you must first research the facts. The higher your position the less actual fact-gathering you will do, but your experience will tell you how solid and complete the information collected by your subordinates is. You must bring all the knowledge you and the people around you can muster to analyze anything.
Develop the ability of looking at a problem from all sides. It is also best to break every project or problem into the smallest divisions possible. Solving one small aspect at a time may prove the easiest and most enduring method of analysis.
Another important requirement in the gathering of all the facts and in the objective studying of the problem is conferring with those who know something about an aspect of the situation or who have something to contribute. Ignoring the opinions and theories of your associates on your own level, above you and below you is foolish management.
Coolness and objectivity are important during the process of analysis. At the same time, don't ignore your emotional reaction to proposals or problems. Your instinct may prove more correct than the facts that you have amassed. If all the facts say, "Go ahead," and you smell trouble, it is probably a sign that more digging is necessary.
Experts on Analysis
We must assume that there is probably a better way to do almost everything. We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before probably cannot be done at all. Donald M. Nelson
A man who is at the top is a man who has the habit of getting to the bottom. Joseph E. Rogers
If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it. Roger Babson
Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets. Henry Ford
There is an easier, better and quicker way to do most everything, and now as never before, we must seek those easier, better, quicker ways and methods. Gustav Metzman
Think as you work, for in the final analysis your worth to your company comes not only in solving problems but in anticipating them. H. H. Ross
Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind. Barstow Bates
Men of action are always subjects of worship and adulation. It's only natural for ambitious men to "get on the ball and keep it rolling." But when the ball stops rolling and the dust dies down, results are what count. Action, to be effective, should be taken only after analyzing problem areas and deliberately determining the best course to follow. Men of action are weakest in their ability to size up circumstances and to think things through before acting. They often waste energy on jobs they tackle. Ulcers and nervous breakdowns reflect attempts to act before thinking things through. Philip Marvin
If education has failed to give a businessman the ability to analyze a given problem, that is, to break down the facts in any situation so that he can see the component parts clearly; and then to synthesize, to put together the clearly revealed facts as they stand out before him, in proper pat terns to form new concepts leading to logical conclusions, then I maintain that he can lay no just claim to being a really educated man. H. W. Prentis, Jr.
Research is an organized method of trying to find out what you are going to do after you cannot do what you are doing now. It may also be said to be the method of keeping a customer reasonably dissatisfied with what he has. That means constant improvement and change so that the customer will be stimulated to desire the new product enough to buy it to replace the one he has. Charles F. Kettering
Wisdom consists of the capacity to confront disturbing ideas, even intolerable ideas, with equanimity, Leo Rosten
On the clarity of your ideas depends the scope of your success in any endeavor? James Robertson
In a mathematics class ... a teacher gives you the problem, and you work out the solution to it. In business, you often have to find the problem before you can even start thinking about the solution. Henry Ford II
Almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced, and almost any idea which jogs you out of your current abstractions may be better than nothing. Alfred North Whitehead
Progress is not made by taking pride in our present standards but by critically examining these standards, hypothetically setting higher standards and attempting to achieve them. J. L. Rosenstein
If something is obvious to you, then it is more than likely that nobody else can see it. It is a sound rule to assume that you are the only one to whom it is obvious. If not somebody else would have seen it. Peter F. Drucker
The success of the early twentieth-century American businessman rested primarily in his ability to adapt rapidly to changes in his environment. Today, this is no longer true. The success of the businessman of the 1960s results in his ability to create changes in his environment. Robert S. Stitch
Good executives thrive on problems because it is their job to solve them calmly and efficiently. Guy Fergason
By perseverance, the snail reached the ark. C. H. Spurgeon
