Diagnosing Business Problems: Treat the Illness, Not Just the Symptoms

When we look at diagnosing business problems, we must be wary of just treating the symptoms – that's like treating a broken leg with nothing but Ibuprofen! If we don't know that the leg is broken, our thought process is that the leg hurts, so pain is the problem to fix. If you dig deeper, though, you soon find that there are other – worse – symptoms, such as the inability to walk.

Together, these symptoms lead you to the real problem: a broken leg. It's important, therefore, that you resist trying to treat the first symptom you run into; by looking deeper, you'll find other symptoms that add up to reveal the true issue/problem. It's like peeling an onion – there are many layers to peel before you reach the middle.

What's a Symptom vs. an Illness?

We had a customer who had a major problem – their inventory was always wrong in the key areas of quantity on hand and valuation costs. The owner rightly wanted these issues fixed and asked us for help. As we discussed the problem with the business's employees and dug deeper into company data, we found that they relied on an order entry system to handle project costing functions. To use the order entry system effectively with their other systems, they had modified some of its processes, leading to messed up inventory. The problem wasn't the inventory, the problem was the use of the wrong software and procedures – the inventory was just a symptom.

How to Keep Symptoms from Distracting You

As you do business, be aware that, as humans, we have an inclination to treat symptoms as they come along. Sometimes this leads us away from the real problem; keep searching and collect all of the symptoms to find the real, underlying issue. Try listing the symptoms in a document, noting who discovered each issue and how much that issue affected their job. Then organize the symptoms into groups based on functional areas (inventory, purchase orders, accounting, etc.) Once you've fully evaluated that list – peeled the onion to its core, so to speak – you can begin to diagnose the real illness. As you work through this process, you'll find that many of the items are symptoms caused by a single problem. When you treat and solve the real problem, the symptoms will disappear.

Remember: don't just treat the pain, fix the broken leg