Gap Assessment has to do with the organizational performance and the current state of the organization with the expected desired future performance. The gap assessment covers every aspect of life including, business, companies, academics, and many more.
Gap assessment is also seen as Gap analysis. The Gap assessment is used to analyze organizational output performance on its expected goals and achievement.
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Gap Assessment
Gap assessment enables the organization to access their level of growth,
For example, if an organization has a product say A, and the product seems not to bring back the required impact. The said product has everything required to excel, good feature, demand, and pricing. Yet the product does not perform well in the market. This is a typical example of an event that requires a Gap assessment.
When you use gap analysis, you would be able to detect where the product is and what’s the problem, what to do and the right place in the market, and what to apply against the competition in the market.
However, Gap assessment or analysis can be carried out on two levels:
- Strategic level – This means comparing the level of your business with industry standards.
- Operational level – This means to compare the present state or performance of your business with your expected desire.
In this article, you will learn about analysis tools for any business or organization and to learn how to identify the gaps in your company and how to apply the gap analysis. Let us first understand the tools needed to conduct a gap analysis.
Gap Analysis Tools
As an organization or business administrator, you will need to ask yourself how far have you come from the work you had planned at the beginning of the year. What are the products or services that you had a program to bring out as the year began? are they already on the floor? Or do you have an idea about what worked and what didn’t? And why?
Gap analysis may help you compare your project’s actual performance against the performance you had planned to achieve. This way you can figure out what worked for you and what didn’t, what decision you made right and what was not so right!
Let’s see the 3 gap analysis tools that organizations can use when doing a gap analysis for their goods and services.
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SWOT
SWOT
S – Strength
W – Weakness
O – Opportunity
T – Threats
The SWOT analysis deals with the internal and external environment respectively. SWOT analysis enables you to determine your current position within the industry or the market.
How to Carry out SWOT to Analyze Gap?
- Get a team of experts from the important department to seat down and analyze with you and identify the problem and the gaps immediately.
- Then, Create a SWOT analysis matrix.
- Next list down all the internal strengths and weaknesses of your business.
- Write down the opportunities and threats that might be caused to your business from an external environment.
- Ensure you rearrange each bullet point in an order of preference or priority.
- Finally, analyze how you can use your strengths to minimize weaknesses and use the best available opportunities to avoid or get rid of the threats.
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McKinsey 7s
This is another Gap analysis tool McKinsey 7s that can help the organization with the gap analysis procedures:
- First, helping you to understand the gaps that are present and that may appear in your business
- To help you identify the areas to optimize and boost business performance
- To align the respective processes during a merger or an acquisition, if you have had recently or are planning to have.
Finally, to help the organization examine the results of future changes within the business.
The 7s refers to the key interrelated elements of an organization. They are: Strategy, Systems, Structure, Shared values, Skills, Staff, and Style.
These elements are divided into two distinct groups: hard elements (tangible factors, that can be controlled) and soft elements (intangible factors, that cannot be controlled)
Hard Elements are as follows:
- Strategy – the plan that will help your business gain an advantage over any of your competitors.
- Structure – the plan or the layout that will define your entire organizational structure.
- Systems – business and technical knowledge your employees already use to complete their daily tasks.
- Soft elements are as follows:
- Shared values – these are the set of beliefs or traits that the organization values.
- Style – A leadership style that defines the organization’s culture.
- Staff – people who are the backbone or the asset of an organization.
- Skills – The tool that the employees have to help your business succeed.
How to Apply McKinsey 7s?
To apply the McKinsey 7s tools analysis follow these steps below;
- First, Start with gathering a professional team.
- Search for gaps and weaknesses in the business and align the relationship between the elements.
- Also, mentioned where the elements will be optimally aligned. When we speak about elements we are referring to the 7s.
- Next, Come up with a suitable plan of action to realign the elements.
- Finally, Implement the changes or the solution you have come up with and reduce the gap.
Nadler-Tushman’s Congruence Model
This is another Gap analysis tool, this model is based on the fact that business performance is the result of 4 key elements: work, people, structure, and culture.
How to Apply this Model
- First, start by gathering all the necessary data that shows any or all symptoms of poor performance.
- Get Specify inputs i.e whether it’s the environment, resources, or history that is causing these poor performances.
- Identify which outputs are required at the organizational level so that the organization can meet all strategic objectives.
- Now assess the degree of congruence among all the mentioned components.
- Finally, Strategize and laid down a profitable plan of action.
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How to Do a Gap Analysis
The following steps can be followed to analyze and identify gaps in your business:
Step 1: Identify the area to focus on- You need to know where to focus, that will be your primary requirement. Whether the issue is finances, product quality or marketing etc. Be specific, so that you can focus better.
Step 2: Identity what Goals you want to achieve- Now that you know the area to focus on, set your target or goals. Set realistic smart goals and make sure to align them with your business needs.
Step 3: Know your current state- Before you go any further, know where you stand currently. By looking into your business reports you will know your current position in the market, brainstorm, and gather as much data as possible on what is your business’s current performance.
Step 4: Determine where you want to be in the future- Define your parameters, remember you have set smart goals, and by achieving those goals you will be able to achieve the desired position for your business in the future.
FAQ
What is the purpose of a gap assessment?
The Purpose of Gap Analysis
The main purpose of gap analysis is to help organizations develop an understanding of the gaps in their performance so that they can create effective strategies to reduce or eliminate these gaps and achieve organizational goals.
What are the five commonly regarded steps of gap analysis?
How to Do a Gap Analysis
Step 1: Pick an Area to Focus on. First of all, you need to know where to focus during the analysis. …
Step 2: What are Your Targets/ Goals? …
Step 3: Determine the Current State of Things. …
Step 4: Determine the Future State of Things. …
Step 5: Identify the Gaps between the Two States.
What is a gap analysis example?
For example, if a company wants to start a marketing campaign to improve their reputation or apply for a loan, they could perform a market gap analysis to help determine their impact on their local economy and use that data as part of their campaign or loan application
What is Gap Assessment Report?
A gap analysis is a method of assessing the performance of a business unit to determine whether business requirements or objectives are being met and, if not, what steps should be taken to meet them. A gap analysis may also be referred to as a needs analysis, needs assessment, or need-gap analysis.
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