BB Chart: A Method for Identifying Benefits and Barriers in Trading Opportunities
Website design By BotEap.comBusiness leaders are always looking for new opportunities to cut costs or increase profits. However, these opportunities can only be discussed during strategic meetings, often doing a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (also known as SWOT) analysis. SWOT is a great tool for leaders to see where the business has been, where it is now, and where it could go. However, the SWOT result falls short when some of the identified opportunities may not be immediately exploited. This may be because management feels they need to do more research before proceeding with an opportunity. This follow-up investigation can take a lot of time, effort, money, and possibly result in missed opportunities. Instead, decide if additional research is needed and what opportunities can be implemented immediately by following the SWOT exercise with a quick Benefits and Barriers (BB) review.
Website design By BotEap.comTo do a BB review, simply make a T-chart with each opportunity listed at the top of a separate page. Then put the words “Benefits” on the left side of the T and “Barriers” on the right side. Once the chart template is ready, leaders can start brainstorming ideas to place on each side of the chart.
- Benefit Examples: quick cash in, easy to do, increased profits, already experienced, low implementation cost, matches long-term goals/objectives, can use existing equipment, cost savings, strong market for product, easy to sell, fits into corporate values, improves customer satisfaction, etc.
- barrier Examples: expensive to implement, inexperienced, training required, quality issues, special equipment needed, expensive to implement, takes too long, government restrictions, out of current customer base, legal issues, additional insurance required, more space etc