I’ve been working as a corporate strategy consultant with entrepreneurs and small businesses for more than a decade, helping them solve problems as they seek to grow. But before that, I trained as an engineer, working in research and design for the Renault Formula 1 racing team (now Alpine F1 Team), then in technology projects for Airbus. When you’re designing race cars and airplanes, there’s no room for error—precision is essential. However, when I moved into consulting, I noticed that scientific precision was frequently in short supply, often resulting in wasted time and money.
In a typical consultant-client relationship, the client will notice a problem, identify the culprit, and then call a consultant to help fix it. The consultant will then focus on that area of underperformance, collecting data, developing hypotheses, building solutions, and analyzing the results. However, the client doesn’t always know what the problem actually is—and it may not be what they had assumed. For example, the client may be concerned about low sales, and assume the problem is that they’re targeting the wrong customers. But in fact the problem may be that the product itself is flawed, or that it’s not being positioned properly.
Even when the consultant recognizes that there may be other factors in play, the traditional methods of discovery, analysis, and solution building often require a substantial investment of time, effort, and money before anyone knows whether the solution is hitting the mark.
Executing on growth and innovation as part of corporate strategy often starts with problem analysis and the problem-solving frameworks used in product management and design thinking. Knowing how to break down large problems into smaller questions helps clarify roadblocks and speed the development of solutions. While there are a number of business problem-solving methodologies available to facilitate that process, I have never found one that gets to the true heart of the matter as quickly as I’d like.
I knew from my years as a Formula 1 and aerospace engineer that there had to be a more efficient way to identify problems and test solutions without compromising thoroughness. Using my knowledge and experience, I developed a two-part process to identify root causes and test solutions. It involves some extra research in the beginning, but ultimately allows me to arrive at solutions much more efficiently. I call it competitive management methodology, and here I show you how it works.
Part 1: Identify the Root Cause of Current Problems
When challenges arise in a business—for example, underperforming sales—managers and consultants will often ask big questions: What’s not working in our current go-to-market strategy? Could we sell more by changing the price? Would adding more features to the product help? What other customer groups could we target?
These are good questions to ask, but they’re not precise enough to reveal the problem. Furthermore, they often reflect the biases or hunches of those in charge, rather than the actual root cause.
The F1 mindset means that you need to turn over every stone in search of trouble spots, without making assumptions about where the cause might lie. The competitive management methodology begins with a 360-degree survey of the company’s performance. This allows me to see where different domains intersect to contribute to the problem, and ultimately helps me provide more holistic solutions. These are the eight domains I examine:
- Purpose
- Clients
- Market
- Suppliers and Partners
- Talent and Team
- Organization and Processes
- Financial Analysis
- Competitive Values
For each category, I use a questionnaire asking stakeholders a series of simple questions to determine how thoroughly they have structured and optimized these areas and how well each is performing. These questions are the same for every company I assist.
