Two concrete ways I can think of right off. The first one is to have regular debriefings that pull in different perspectives and points of view. Some of them are usually from outside the business. I don’t care if it’s a consultant, management team, a peer group or an advisory board. When we bring different eyes on the problems, they see things we don’t or come up with possible alternatives that just would never have had occurred to us. The second one, and this one anybody can do, is regular monitoring of the budget variances. That is the difference between the annual cash flow budget and the actual experiences where variances occur. The issue is timely and effective action. Learning requires staying on top of things so that you spot problems quickly and deal with them or recognize that circumstances change and the plans need to be modified for the rest of the year. Problems and other things are very much like a cancer; if they are spotted early enough on, they can often create situations where the damage is irreparable.

» Dr. Danny Klinefelter TEPAP, Texas A&M Click here to read more about Dr. Danny Klinefelter