Great Leaders Can Undertake Rapid Fire Viability Assessments

Decide And Get on With It (DAGOWIT)

I was fortunate to be a venture capitalist between 1999 and 2004, a period marked by the dot-com bubble and its burst. This experience provided invaluable insights into startups and investments. During this time, I developed several Rapid Fire Assessment Tools:

Tool # 1: Rapid Deal Assessment:
This tool helps decide whether to pursue detailed due diligence on behalf of our venture general partners.

Tool # 2: Break Even on Investment (BEI) Tool:
Designed to assist investee companies in making decisions under $100,000. Startups often faced decisions like whether to invest in a business model tweak, a new product feature, hiring, revising distribution strategies, or entering a JV. The BEI tool emphasizes breaking even while pursuing incremental or exponential growth through common sense and serendipity.

Tool # 3: Mini Business Plan: This tool streamlines the process of whiteboarding and documenting strategic business plans. A business plan is essential for communicating the business model, strategies, and tactics to the team, raising capital, and forming joint ventures. The Mini Business Plan cuts to the chase, allowing for quick transition from brainstorming to documentation.

In the last decade, my focus has shifted to the growth of established businesses with fewer than 200 employees. Many of these companies have startup divisions, ventures, and projects, so I rely on my venture capital experience. Additionally, many have a manufacturing base, leading me to focus on lean manufacturing and ISO 9001 Certified Quality Management Systems (QMSs).

Tool # 4: SABAI Plans:
For established businesses, I developed SABAI Plans, inspired by the Hebrew word "Sabai" meaning "elder wisdom." These plans focus on a structured approach to addressing SWOT factors, emphasizing strategy, action, adaptability, and implementation.

SABAI stands for:

• S: Strategy
• AB: Action-Based
• A: Adaptive
• I: Implementation

Objectives of SABAI Plans

• Key Internal and External Factors: Develop a comprehensive list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats affecting the business. Sometimes threats are flipped into opportunities, and the strategy and action plan are built around that flip.
• Strategic Action-Based, Adaptive Response: Create a strategic response to leverage strengths, address weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and mitigate or transform threats.
• A Framework for the Future: Provide real-world training to the Senior Management Team (SMT) to adopt the SABAI framework for new SWOT factors, developing strategies supported by adaptable action-based implementation plans.

I also draw from Eric Ries' book "The Lean Startup," which outlines seven rapid-fire viability assessment tools that enable SMTs to DECIDE AND GET ON WITH IT (DAGOWIT):

Tool # 5: Validated Learning: Learning what customers really want through continuous experimentation.

Tool # 6: Build-Measure-Learn: A feedback loop central to the Lean Startup methodology.

Tool #7: Minimum Viable Product (MVP): A simplified product version to collect maximum validated learning with minimal effort.

Tool # 8: Pivot or Persevere: Deciding whether to make a fundamental change or continue with the current strategy based on feedback.

Tool # 9: Innovation Accounting: Measuring progress, setting milestones, and prioritizing work to focus on the right metrics. I began my career as an accountant. While accounting can be seen as mundane, it is a necessary aspect of business. Eric Ries articulates this well in his discussion of Innovation Accounting. Budgeting, forecasting, and historical accounting are crucial components of the Rapid-Fire Assessment Tool Kit for great leaders.

Tool # 10: Continuous Deployment: Releasing small, incremental updates frequently for faster iterations and quicker responses to feedback.

Tool #11: Lean Thinking: Creating more value for customers with fewer resources by eliminating waste and optimizing processes.