{"id":7,"date":"2024-01-02T23:07:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T23:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.vectorreports.com\/staging\/1269\/about\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T14:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:34:15","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/business.vectorreports.com\/staging\/1269\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Link to Vector Reports login<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"VIA-Business<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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About VIA<\/strong><\/font>\u00b7Business <\/em>Assessments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Problem: businesses have a need for an effective business diagnostic<\/strong><\/em><\/summary>\n
People often leap without looking<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Most businesses fail not from the lack of a good idea (or product), but the lack of robust supporting processes and infrastructures wrapped around that idea<\/em> that inhibits fulfillment. Immature processes make them vulnerable and the root cause<\/em> often boils down to process vulnerabilities caused by not knowing<\/em> or not wanting to know<\/em>. This seems like a huge and unnecessarily waste to us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small businesses face many challenges. Typically, they do not have the time, experienced people, abilities, extra resources, or infrastructure to properly respond. It can quickly turn from “follow the plan<\/em>” into a \u201cfix things as you can<\/em>\u201d change process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, when an issue or problem shows up, solving it seems to turn into a prioritization juggle assigning limited resources to make a difference<\/em> in a competitive environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This frequently results in a Catch-22: You need more resources to develop more robust infrastructure, tools and methods required to be successful; however, if you already had that infrastructure in place, you could more easily obtain those needed additional resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too often, small businesses\u2014even those with a great product\u2014are pressed to act quickly without a full view of all that is required to build a business around that product or service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People often become overwhelmed by work<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Leaders may find themselves compelled to work \u201cin<\/strong>\u201d the business itself as opposed to \u201con<\/strong>\u201d the business\u2014a subtle, but important, distinction about what part of the business gets attention, or not. Strategically important challenges are overcome by tactically urgent tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that, human nature gradually accepts a pattern\u2014focusing on the crisis-of-the-day soon becomes a normal and accepted behavior. Higher-level (systemic) thinking gets sidetracked, deferred, and tossed aside into the dark shadows where problems grow even larger and more difficult to fix later. At the end of the day, well-intentioned but exhausted leaders and workers might be forgiven for believing all their “fixing” work was necessary and beneficial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By creating the VIA<\/font>\u00b7<\/strong>Business diagnostic assessment, Vector Reports has flipped the typical script. We don’t focus on what you’re doing well, instead we show you what you may not have previously seen or even known about so you can address it.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

The DIY Solution: VIA<\/font>\u00b7<\/strong>Business<\/strong><\/em><\/strong> assessments help make discoveries<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/summary>\n
Surfacing process constraints<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Vector Reports\u2019 founders cut their professional teeth on the systemic study and application of lean engineering, manufacturing and support systems. Vector Reports operates from the philosophy that identifying, reducing and ultimately eliminating waste in organizational systems pays benefits well beyond simply the cost savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If accepting wasteful actions (such as not knowing about or ignoring critical processes) is built into a business model, employees and team members are encouraged to exaggerate estimates and to increase cycle times, inventories, and work in process. This spawns untruthful relationships (dysfunctional work cultures) which hide problems and reduce trust all along the value chain. This builds into complex social and business process that turn into a form of rewards\u2014people actually get paid, inadvertently, to maintain the current state. And in the end, no system built on maintaining the status quo can survive over time. Change must occur. The challenge is making change easier to do than the status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revealing business insights<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

For very small businesses, Vector Reports\u2019 recommendations and solutions don\u2019t let perfection get in the way of good progress. Growth journeys are an iterative and integrated learning process toward success. All recommendations are based upon generally accepted good business practices\u2014the absence of which can derail fledgling and small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vector Reports assessments are a cost-effective means to rapidly obtain a set of prioritized recommendations that, once understood and implemented, will help an organization deploy and benefit from much more mature business processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low diagnostic cost gives businesses and helping organizations equal access to opportunity and quality\u2014especially those with limited resources. Historically underserved communities\u2014who, in the past may have confronted biases and inequities due to location, size, ethnicity, race, gender, nationality, or other factors\u2014can now easily avail themselves of this world-class virtual consulting support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before getting the detailed report recommendations, simply the act of taking a VIA<\/font>\u00b7<\/strong>Business assessment is a learning experience. Assessors have remarked, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did<\/em>n’t know we were missing this! We\u2019re going to have to look at it now … and fix it!\u201d<\/em><\/p>Overheard in an assessment team discussion<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We believe the best value in hiring a skilled consultant comes from targeting their applied expertise on solutions, not on lengthy get-to-know-you research or misapplying their expertise on the wrong issue. We submit there is no more cost-effective way for a small organization to apply the “80\/20” improvement rule than using a VIA<\/font>\u00b7<\/strong>Business diagnostic report in combination with an expert \/ counselor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consultants and mentors receiving a VIA<\/font>\u00b7<\/strong>Business diagnostic report from a potential client can help them solve the business’ process vulnerabilities at a fraction of the typical time required to conduct client interviews and research.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

The assessment is a diagnostic triage of your small business<\/strong><\/em><\/summary>\n
What you don’t know can hurt you<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Like skillful doctors with a willing patient, a VIA<\/font>\u00b7<\/strong>Business <\/em>assessment is a diagnostic triage that measures the status of important business processes and then supports leadership decision making, about what to do, and in what order!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good information and awareness (knowing) enables the ability to choose wisely. Often it is not knowing<\/em>\u2014information that is not in our current awareness\u2014<\/em>that becomes the root cause of problems that emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a business doesn\u2019t know what it should know<\/a><\/span><\/em>, that missing information can lead to business failure. And in those cases you need outside help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction to the capability model<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Vector Reports realized that a systemic diagnostic approach was needed and designed its assessments accordingly. When you observe a struggling business it is easy to see the lack of process capabilities. And in a successful business you can see robust process capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Integration model<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Small businesses need to develop four important capabilities simultaneously to move from surviving to thriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And those capabilities need to balance and align with each other, or that imbalance can create problems, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

These capabilities, and their associated processes, are not magic, nor do the leaders of those successful companies have a secret formula. Instead, successful capabilities are built up by developing reliable and aligned business processes that work interdependently to produce desired results. It is a form of steady discipline:<\/p>\n\n\n\n