Complete business blueprint: no more blind spots

Business entails a lot to attend to. How does all of that relate? How to keep track of everything? My MBA framework for the training course SpeedMBA sets out a complete “business blueprint”. For those who like a bit more words to a graph, I’ll briefly explain the model by way of its core elements.

• BLACK: 4 words to outline the spectrum of each and every business (freelancer or multinational). You need to attain goals, the most general being: be with sufficient success on the map. Thereto, you have to carry out work. Thereto, resources must be spent in good ways. And the whole of this is thought out, realized, and supported by people.
• GREEN: 4 logical split-ups per key word, so 4×2 distinctions that define a “partial but complete” spectrum per key word. The goals need to be taken care of now and with regard to the future. The work is about streamlining current processes to perform well, and about working on the company as a whole. The resource optimization is about keeping track of how you’ve done up till now, and how to improve from now on. And the people are in the first place about others who are to realize and support your business, and in the second place about improving yourself.

• BLUE AND RED: 8 prototypical business domains emerging from the 4×2 distinctions: strategy, new business development, organization, management, finance, quality improvement, people mobilization, and leadership/entrepreneurship. Find the corresponding core challenges in red in the graph.
• YELLOW: 2 levels, to make a distinction between a “base level” and “next levels“. Regarding the base level: if your are on the map with sufficient success, the processes are streamlined, the financials are satisfactory, and the people to realize and support your business are satisfied, you are doing just fine. If your want more or better, you will dive into next level domains: develop new business, steer the company at a more comprehensive level than “just” the processes, actively work on improvements, and thereto, in the last and (looping back to the beginning and the whole) in the first place: improving yourself, as to drive the envisioned shifts.

That’s it! All of business in one comprehensive grid. Obviously you’d need more insight in the hundreds of detailed insights within these eight domains, but this high level framework has value in itself. Some possible ways to use it:

• Have it as a mental framework in which you can plot everything you see regarding business around you, to see how everything falls into place.
• Use it as a management framework, to have a complete view on what to periodically assess.
• Use it to pinpoint problems/challenges that you face, as to create shortcuts to appropriate approaches.

To my pride, my publisher said: this business blueprint may well become the world standard for business thinking. Hope you like it!