Generating and explaining solutions

What the standard asks for

• Achieved: identify a range of possible solutions to the critical problem.
• Merit: fully explain how possible solutions would address the critical problem.
• So a solution is not credited for existing. It is credited for being explained as a mechanism that acts on the cause you have identified.

Generating solutions that are genuinely different

Take each solution from a different part of the business. Two from different rows can never collapse into one another.

Type	What it changes	Examples
Product	What the business sells	New line, changed specification, added service, dropped line
Market	Who it sells to	New customer group, new region, new channel, exporting
Operations	How it makes or delivers	Automate, change supplier, change process, outsource, relocate
People	Who does it and how they are led	Restructure, train, change leadership, change pay design
Financial	Price, cost and funding	Reprice, cut cost, seek finance, sell an asset, close a site
Relationships	Who it works with	Partnership, joint venture, long-term contract, supplier agreement

Explaining a solution properly

Use the same four steps every time:

1. State the solution specifically. Not "improve marketing" but "sell a curriculum-linked programme directly to schools".
2. Name the cause it acts on. "This addresses the problem because the lost bookings were leisure customers choosing a competitor, and school bookings are made against a different requirement."
3. Explain the mechanism. What actually changes in the business, and why that changes the outcome.
4. Reach a business goal. Revenue, unit cost, margin, capacity utilisation, cash flow, retention, reputation.

Test each solution before you commit to it

• Is it possible for this business? Check the resources for a constraint that would rule it out.
• Can the business afford it? A solution requiring capital the business does not have is not available to it.
• How fast does it work? A problem that threatens survival this season cannot be solved by a plan that takes two years.
• Does it address the cause, or only the symptom? Discounting hides a competitiveness problem; it does not fix it.
• What does it cost the business elsewhere? Every solution has a trade-off, and naming it is a Merit-level move — as well as being the material for your justification later.

A weak solution and a strong one

Weak: "The business could advertise more to attract customers back."

• Not specific, names no cause, describes no mechanism, and could be written about any business in any situation.

Strong: "The business could offer supermarkets a two-year supply agreement at a fixed volume. This addresses the entry of a new competitor because the competitor's route to market is the same supermarket buyers; a signed volume commitment removes that shelf space from contention before the competitor's first full season. The business gives up the ability to raise its price during the term, but it secures the volume that keeps its packhouse near capacity, which holds its unit costs down and protects the margin that funds the next season."

• Specific, aimed at a cause, mechanical, and honest about the trade-off.