Now – Where – How is a simple process to follow in order to develop a practical business plan, drive change, or structure the way you address any issue. It forces you to think about where you are NOW, WHERE you want to be, and then come back to developing the strategies and actions as to HOW you will get there. It is a core tool for structuring both great conversations and strategy development.
The Process
Now-Where-How is a core methodology that should be the over-arching process for resolving any matter big or small.
There are many ways that you can conduct the “Now” analysis. You could start by just having a simple conversation such as, “How is Business at present?” You can then extend further using tools such as Mindmapping (stay tuned for a future Advisory Minute). You could also use various diagnostic and financial tools to pin-point key levers to pull to improve your business.
The temptation that arises from the “Now” analysis is to start fixing all the things that you find wrong. We say that is jumping from the “Now” analysis directly to the “How.” Why do people do this? They see a problem in sales, so they get rid of the sales team and hire better ones. Often this purely addresses the symptom rather than the root cause. You need to dig deeper.
The correct approach is to avoid this temptation and invest time into conducting a “Where” analysis. It is not as short term, it requires vision and is much harder to do. It may not be the sales team that is the problem, it may be their training. You need to again have great conversations/questions such as: “So what are your growth and profit goals for the next 12 months?” to flesh out where you want to take your business. You can also Mindmap your vision ideas and pin-point key aspects.
The key is to have a good understanding of where you are heading so that when you do get to the “How” you know what is important and what is not.
We all get excited about the “How” because it means action. How do you get to where you want to be? The strategies and actions developed move us from the “Now” to the ‘”Where.”
The Now-Where-How concept is an important first step to allow you to put a peg in the ground to where you are NOW in relation to your capabilities, capacity, offerings, barriers, opportunities, products and services.
To learn more or to discuss how Hannis T. Bourgeois can help you with your Now – Where – How analysis, please contact Robert C. Varnau, CPA, CGMA, JD, MBA at rvarnau@htbcpa.com.