Powerful Decision Making Tool

The main tool we use for opportunity analysis is Opportunity Matrix™, a simple yet powerful analysis tool that identifies those opportunities that the people in the business will both enjoy, and make money at.

Far too often we encounter firms that really should be superb businesses, and yet they don’t seem to get above mediocre.  Frequently that is due to the fact that the people working in them are simply not excited about what they are doing for a living – so they don’t go the extra mile when it’s needed.

Conversely, we also come across entrepreneurs who are completely passionate about their business idea – they live and breathe it, putting in all the hours available to make it work.  But it’s just not viable, so after months or even years of heartache, they crash and burn.

With Opportunity Matrix, we help business owners and managers to identify those ideas – either for new business or for growth – that are both attractive to them, and genuinely viable.

Working with a matrix like the one below, we identify which of the four quadrants each possible opportunity falls into:

The Opportunity Matrix

• Exciting
  These are the opportunities to pursue, they have a good chance of making money, and the people in the business will actually enjoy them
• Needs Work
  While these would be great fun to follow up on, they are going to need some work before they will work and make money
• Bread and Butter
  These may not the most enjoyable, but they are easy to make money at.  Revenue and profit from these could be used to support developement of ideas in the “Needs Work” quadrant
• Back Burner
  Being neither a lot of fun nor particularly viable (in their current form), these are best left until opportunities in all the other quadrants have been maximised.