What We Do

Russell Ackoff said it best when he suggested that “a good deal of the corporate planning he had observed is like a ritual rain dance; it has no effect on the weather that follows, but those who engage in it think it does.”

Moreover, it seemed to him that “much of the advice and instruction related to corporate planning is directed at improving the dancing, not the weather.” This is especially true when defining a new or improved business model.

Most approaches talk about the need for a business model to be more innovative and/or more entrepreneurial. More innovative or entrepreneurial than what? Most businesses don’t have a good picture of their business! Yes, they have a set of financial books and make some money, but knowing their business, its structure, and how it can be changed or improved is a significant and increasingly puzzling task.

And yet, businesses have been around and practiced for hundreds of years. Why then can’t we do a better job of improvement? How can we avoid “dance” steps and plan the right moves? How can we create an honest, truthful picture of our business: a picture we can use to start improving?

A Business Framework can do that.

Business frameworks describe an organization’s organizational processes or management structure to achieve a particular goal or innovation.

Who runs your business? You do, the supplier, not your customers. Agreed, you do not have a business unless you get orders, but you, the supplier, must have an organization to respond to a product or service request. Therefore, the supplier must decide what form this business framework model should look like.

L4 Frameworks do that.

Business processes exist within a business framework – implicit or explicit. All businesses have such a framework – L4 Frameworks show how to construct and work with business frameworks,

We provide the methods to build Business Frameworks.

Click on Workbook to download Sample Pages, a free copy of the first chapter (Level 1 Normative), or a full version of the Level 4 Frameworks Workbook.