Common Business Analysis Methods for Companies

To analyze business needs, using suitable methods plays an important role. There are many business analysis methods in common use today. Here are the common business analysis methods that businesses use most often, which Mona Media wants to share with you.

Everyone wants a successful business, but in Vietnam many people are still reluctant to discuss business and strategy, which leads to a lack of research and analysis before making decisions. Business analysis is an important step to understand the market and customers and to optimize operations. The video below will help you see business thinking more realistically, so you can apply business analysis methods effectively.

Analysis with the SWOT model

This analysis can be done by one person or a group of people in a company with different thinking and viewpoints, to assess the factors affecting the company's internal and external environment and respond appropriately. SWOT analysis focuses on four factors: strengths and weaknesses are internal to the business, while opportunities and threats are external. In detail:

• Strengths: A company's strengths are the factors that give it its main advantages. Examples of strengths include the company's with brand metrics, which assets, its reputation in the market, experienced and highly skilled staff, quality products, good customer support…
• Weaknesses: A company's weaknesses are the activities, policies or shortcomings that create problems for its growth. Examples of weaknesses are a bad reputation, a newly founded company, little capital, an unfinished product, poorly skilled staff, negativity between departments, office cliques…
• Opportunities: External facts and factors that can give the company an advantage over competitors. Opportunities can include incentives, government support policies, laws, changing consumer trends, chances to expand the market…
• Threats: External factors or information that can put the company at a disadvantage. Examples of threats are changes in trends, new regulations and laws, new technology, competitors and emerging competitors…

For details on the SWOT matrix, see HERE

See more: Identifying an effective competitive advantage for your business

Business analysis with MOST

What is the MOST method?

MOST stands for Mission, Objective, Strategy and Tactics. MOST analysis is a powerful technique for analyzing business operations. It always works top-down. Business analysts should make sure they keep focus on the objectives that matter most to the organization.

This analysis gives a clearer understanding of the organization's capabilities and vision, and answers how to achieve its mission and objectives. It shows how strategy and tactics are carried out to reach the organization's objectives and mission.

Levels of MOST analysis

Mission: The mission must be a long-term effort of the organization. Every part of the organization contributes equally to fulfilling it. This part of the analysis states the overall reason for the business and the results to be achieved. The clearer a business is about its mission, the higher its chance of success.

Objectives: The next step after mission analysis. These are the specific goals each department sets to achieve its mission. Objectives must be specific, realistic and measurable. Objectives need to meet the SMART criteria are:

• S-Specific: Specific
• M-Measurable: Measurable
• A-Achievable: Achievable
• R-Realistic: Realistic
• T-Timely: Time-bound

Strategies: The actions that need to be taken to fulfil the organization's objectives. This is the long-term approach to reaching the objectives. Strategies can look five years, ten years or more ahead. Many actions are needed to achieve the objectives of the mission. A strategy also serves as a compass that guides the organization's development.

Tactics: The instructions and methods for carrying out the organization's strategies. Tactics are kept simple so that everyone in the organization can understand and carry them out.

PESTLE analysis

In any organization, many external macro-environmental factors can affect its operations. PESTLE analysis is sometimes called PEST analysis and is used across many business fields.

PESTLE stands for Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental. These factors can create opportunities or threats for any organization, which makes it a very powerful business analysis tool or technique.

Business system analysis (System Analysis)

System analysis is a systematic problem-solving method for collecting and interpreting facts, finding weaknesses in a system, identifying business problems, or breaking a system into smaller parts. It is an approach that reduces errors across different problems.

Specifically, system analysis is the process of studying things from the company's viewpoint, defining its goals, and building a process together to create an effective system. For example, a problem may be solved within hours without analyzing the whole system, but sometimes that creates many other unrelated problems. So the better you understand the system, the fewer problems are likely to arise.

Business Process Modelling (BPM) analysis

Business model analysis helps you better understand the company's business and clarifies its policies, techniques and market approach. It helps you understand things like the revenue model, the value offered to customer segments, the costs of delivering that value, the cost of building the brand, and the impact on the company if the business model changes.

Business model analysis also covers details of key factors such as production, marketing and management costs. By fully studying production costs, marketing strategy and the impact of changes to them, business environment analysis ensures the company's growth and revenue.

BPM is an analysis technique used in the analysis phase of a project to understand or analyze the gaps between the current business process and the future business process the business has chosen.

Carry out the tasks below in a BPM project to analyze the business environment, including:

• Strategic planning.
• Business model analysis.
• Defining and designing the process.
• Technical analysis for complex business solutions.

See more: 7 startup business models you should know

Analysis with the Six Thinking Hats technique

“6 Thinking Hats” is a thinking and analysis method first developed by Dr. Edward de Bono in 1980. It is a thinking tool that helps you assess a situation from different angles to make better decisions.

This technique can be used for individual or group analysis. It is often applied in group discussions in a company. When a problem comes up, the manager forms a group, and each member presents a view from the perspective of the thinking hat they take on. There are six hats, each with a color, as follows:

• Green: creative thinking.
• Xanh lam: discussion of the overview, or the big picture.
• White: logical, data-driven thinking.
• Yellow: positive thinking, mainly focused on strengths.
• Red: reactions based on emotion.
• Black: opposing thinking, focused on weaknesses.

See more: Meaning of colors in branding

Brainstorming

This is a useful technique for generating diverse ideas, solving or finding solutions to complex problems, and analyzing business operations correctly.

Brainstorming is defined as “a problem-solving technique that involves spontaneous contributions of ideas from all members of a group”. Note that during brainstorming you don't criticize or judge individual ideas as right or wrong. Every idea, even a brand-new one, is encouraged.

Brainstorming done by one person can be called independent brainstorming, but in larger organizations brainstorming is practiced in groups.

Brainstorming is creative thinking about a problem to come up with a range of new ideas, approaches and options. It is a group activity whose main purpose is to gather the views of team members and produce solutions to problems.

Analysis with Mind mapping

A mind map is a very useful and effective business analysis technique that helps us understand problems, ideas and thoughts more clearly and visually…

The structure of a mind map closely resembles the structure of neurons in the brain (one reason it is called a mind map). It starts from an initial idea and keeps expanding as new ideas and options are added.

A business analyst's role is to investigate and assess the problems that target customers or stakeholders face. A mind map helps solve them by giving a detailed structure to any idea, thought or piece of information.

Mind mapping helps make sure all the factors that need analysis have been considered. Several tools are available for creating mind maps online, such as Freemind, Xmind, Mindmap, Lucidchart and Canva…

Process design

This is an important part of business analysis, where the analyst defines the organization's process designs and their useful attributes.

Process design is essential for solving problems and seizing opportunities, and for tracking and measuring business performance so that consistent value is delivered to consumers.

A process analyst reviews existing processes and makes changes when required. The business analyst is responsible for finding ways to improve business processes and for maintaining them.

To help you understand business processes, and the startup story in particular, the video below is Mr. Hung, CEO & Founder of The MONA, sharing his own experience. It is very “raw” but “real” information, which makes it easiest to picture what running a service business involves.

Click the video below to watch!

From this article you now know the business analysis basic and most common methods used in business. Apply the one that suits your company and make your business run better.