To use a disclaimer from the financial services industry – past performance is a not necessarily a guide to future performance. The value of your investment may go up and down. Yes, we know. And increasingly we realise that past performance is just that, past, and that the future is changing ever faster.
Accountants usually try to manage this by analysing the past in detail. It’s a habit – we pore over management accounts, endlessly picking over small changes to this and that. When, all along, the future has already arrived and bears little resemblance to the past, which we have so well dissected.
We don’t do that. We look at past performance for predictors of the future – quickly. We can’t change the past, so we don’t spend time and money on more of what our clients won’t be doing.
We look at what they might want to be doing, to create the future for them that they want, and give them the tools to get it.
We do this by helping them become more agile and flexible as managers, and structure the business to move appropriately and promptly to minimise threats and maximise opportunities.
Small businesses often feel that they are powerless in the face of market forces or changes in the economy, or competitor pressures. They think they are too small. However, we have always thought that if you can dominate a small niche, you can repel all comers. That is increasingly the case in this new world, where there is more specialism and personalisation – where keeping close to customers works for you every time.
A recent study by Agility Insights of 102 businesses has shown that there is little correlation between a deep understanding of the external environment and business success. But there is strong correlation between management ability to act and success. In other words, focussing on the right things internally, and developing your ability to act, impacts strongly on the external environment and your success as a business.
This study shows that, with the right help, your ability to act overcomes these obstacles. It’s doesn’t matter how big or small you are, you can achieve what you want from your business life. We can give you all the tools to make that happen.