| BEECHCROFT's
Business Solutions cover a range of
advisory and investigative services. These draw on the many years of
experience of each of the five directors. BEECHCROFT's
approach to client service is such that every assignment is handled
throughout by the directors. As a result, clients gain speed of response
with direct access to our collective experience.
Does this sound familiar? -
Entrepreneurs start with an idea, enthusiasm and a vision and often find
that success for the business commits them in areas that they really did
not want to be in.
The growth of a business is typified by a
number of quantum leaps in size and complexity. In the early days the
individual, or individuals, are both management and workforce with much of
the information on the success of the business and its future being
committed to memory. The business starts to recruit staff (with the
attendant requirement of supervision and briefing), followed by a period
of growth, continued lack of funds and usually modest profitability.
Success leads to a general increase in
the amount of information required by the business both internally and for
external uses. Often the managers begin to experience information overload
with all parties focusing-in on an individual or individuals for
information and decisions. The need to recruit junior managers becomes
apparent and the business leaps into a "more structured" form.
Often, however, the information systems capabilities fail to grow with
turnover and the business begins to suffer from a great deal of data but a
marked lack of information. Caught early, this can be put right with the
implementation of an effective management system. Left too late, the
business can degenerate into crisis management and the time of the
managers is drawn further and further away from their key skill areas.
Avoiding the problems of growth is often
difficult since it requires resources usually absent in the business and,
perhaps, difficult decisions on how to resource it, both in financial and
human terms.
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