Very few companies have the luxury of unlimited budgets

Business coaching affords us a unique perspective on an organisation´s true position by being able to look at it from the outside in. With years of experience in business coaching, we see through the politics and personalities that can often cloud the vision of those who work in such companies, allowing us to identify root causes and logical solutions to problems or issues that are holding back potentially successful organisations. A management strategy of “going with one´s gut” is one such issue that often needs to be addressed.

Very few organisations these days have the luxury of unlimited budgets to play with. It is far more likely that the spending of every single penny has to be accounted for, justified and authorised in triplicate. When considering how your limited funds are to be invested each year, do you follow a set of rules? Do you assess the risks and rewards to determine whether the investment has merit, or do you simply follow your gut?

Surprisingly, far too many senior managers rely on instinct rather than cold hard facts and logical research. In business coaching we meet all kinds of people, but it still confounds us every time we meet someone who feels that there is a mystical art to business, akin to “The Force” in Star Wars, that will simply tell them when things are right or wrong without the need to carry out basic good practice, research and analysis. Don´t get us wrong – instinct, intuition and gut feelings have their place, but without considered analysis decision makers who are guided by them alone run the risk of serious financial blunders.

Our business coaching role is to rein in these thoughts and instil an ethos of investment planning based on a detailed assessment of the risks and rewards of such a spend.

Organisations invest in all manner of things, from new products and services to new technologies, new acquisitions and new people. But when is the right time to make such an investment, and how do you know where the best return on your investment (ROI) can be achieved? The answer is to keep your finger on the pulse of your market, and to thoroughly analyse every opportunity before jumping in.

It is very easy to get sucked into the trap of investing in something just because your competition does. Your gut might be tingling away to tell you that you could be left behind if you don´t follow their lead, but the calm and measured approach that we recommend when business coaching is always a far better strategy to protect you from poor decisions.

Flattery is another common investment trap that gets the gut a-tingling. When approached by someone with an investment opportunity – for a partnership, a business deal or an acquisition – the natural reaction of some would be to put logic to one side and bask in the knowledge that the opportunity had landed in their lap. Business coaching will once again encourage clients to strip away such corruptive thoughts and see the investible prospect for what it really is.

To give you an idea of how gut decisions can go wrong, or go very right when accompanied by a considered approach, here are a couple of real-life examples. (The names of the companies have been changed to save any embarrassment!)

Case Study #1

A client came to us recently who felt that they could benefit from some business coaching to heighten their keen instincts. After a detailed assessment of their business spending, we discovered that their gut instincts had them investing in totally the wrong places. We identified that their main income-winning team was woefully understaffed, while a recruitment campaign was ongoing for their R&D department whose only achievement over the previous ten years had been the development of a single product that they had not competed and did not know how to market. Addressing this imbalance has seen the company achieve far better returns on their investment in human resources than they´d hoped for.

Case Study #2

While we were working with another client, their recognition of the benefit that the web offered their business in the form of training and online applications to support their customers in their activities has not only secured the future of the business, but has seen it grow from strength to strength even in a recession. The business coaching that we offered in this case was centred around maximising the benefits the company could achieve from this development.

Good gut instincts can guide you in new directions, but remember that the tingling feeling in your tummy could just as easily be an indication that it´s lunchtime. Never get complacent – always weigh up the risks and rewards of any investment decision.