I gave the book
A Health Check for Your Business
by John F. Gittus, Three Stars in my review on Amazon.co.uk.
Here is my review.
Help to spot problems in a business before they become too serious
I wrote my MBA dissertation on how small businesses in financial difficulties can be rescued and one of the important conclusions was to catch the problems early, before time and money are close to running out.
I recommended that accountants should have a health check to help the business owner spot potential issues. This would allow the owner to take action if the risks were high, to have contingency plans and to monitor the changes of less important issues.
I then developed a health check and as a business coach and advisor, I have it available to help highlight issues.I thought this book would take a similar approach and I could compare methodologies.
The book is less questionnaire based than I was expecting but it does include some analyses to do. It also provides a general review of how businesses get into difficulties.
I like the fact that it covers break even analysis and also a tool called the business thermometer that measures return on capital employed and links assets with the drivers of the break even calculation.
It includes some points on staffing that I need to pick up. Some of the book feels old but it was published in 1993 and most causes of trouble for business haven’t changed but some new ones need to be added in with the development of the Internet, risk of hacking and the two edged sword of social media.
I would have liked to have seen more of a strategic analysis. A business can thrive in difficult trading conditions but it’s more likely to follow the industry struggles. A business can also lose competitive strengths which leads to under performance compared with competitors.
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