As a Regional Business Advisor, a part of this role entailed meeting with the relevant business owner/ senior manager to gain an insight into how the business functioned – to then be able to offer helpful suggestions as to how to improve the operation. A reduced-version of a ‘GAP Analysis’ was used to obtain such insights.

A ‘GAP Analysis’ is often conducted in advance of – and in preparation for – writing a Strategic Plan. Most importantly a ‘GAP Analysis’ – if done correctly – will uncover elements of the business that are not working well (e.g. particular software system, particular Operating Procedure, etc), over and above those elements that are deemed to be working well.

Under no circumstances should the owner of a business perform their own ‘GAP Analysis’. Why not ? Because the owner will inadvertently cause a “self interest bias” to eventuate. Often owners of businesses are not prepared to identify (and own-up to) weaknesses in either their business and/ or within themselves; they consider their operation to be “going well” and functioning without any shortcomings. This is a typical mindset of a proud business owner, and there is nothing wrong with feeling proud of your achievements EXCEPT when your sense of pride gets in the way of uncovering areas of your business that could be improved upon.

So, a ‘GAP Analysis’ will yield greatest benefits to a business owner when:

a) A person with no vested interest in their business and who has the necessary skills/ experience conducts the questioning of the business owner; and

b) The business owner provides answers to the GAP Analysis questions asked that are wholly truthful and which include insights into those dimensions of the business that aren’t working well – even if such answers cause the owner a little embarrassment when conveying what these elements are.

To be clear, there is little point in performing a ‘GAP Analysis’ if a business owner is not prepared to meet the above two conditions.

I would be happy to perform a full ‘GAP Analysis’ for any business/ organisation that is open/ willing to face some “home truths” about their operation. I have developed a template to enable a GAP Analysis to be completed within a 1 hour timeframe.