Businesses are in constant effort to achieve sustainable success. However, their chances of reaching success at the end of this effort are strongly influenced by whether they know themselves well enough.

While making their long-, medium- and short-term plans, businesses often dream. This is right. But while dreaming, our feet must at the same time be firmly on the ground. Dreaming is the first phase of every project, every piece of innovative work, of growth and development. Nothing happens without dreaming. At the same time, making the dreamed goals concrete, making them attainable and measurable, turning them realistic and shaping them to take the time dimension into account is necessary for the business to walk with its feet firmly on the ground. The questions business managers should ask while shaping these plans and goals are these:

1) Where are we now?

2) Where do we want to reach?

3) How do we get where we want to go?

4) How do we know we are moving on the right path?

Perhaps the business's current situation can be set out from some data, and the goals we want to reach can be identified partly as dreams and partly realistically. But here, the balance between dream and reality depends on the business acting in knowledge of itself. That is, the answers sought to "how do we get where we want to go?" may require certain changes in the business. To reveal these changes, or the need for change, the business needs to be reviewed and evaluated by a third party and its problems identified. Then, solution proposals should be defined that will develop the current organization and processes in a way that will realize the goals.

We can liken this work to a physician examining their patient, making a diagnosis and providing treatment.

Making profitability — the foundation of strategic development — sustainable is possible for businesses through productivity and adaptation to the competitive environment. Managing businesses productively and adapting quickly to the changes around them is the first condition for growing sustainably. Looking at the lifespans of businesses in Türkiye, it can be seen that the life curve of many is directly proportional to the boss's productive working period. After the management of SMEs — which hold an important place in our economy — passes to the second generation, downsizings, break-ups and bankruptcies are observed. Management consultants have important duties in solving these problems, which arise as a consequence of the failure to institutionalize. At the head of this work comes the Corporate Check-Up. Every firm should be able to have a check-up done regularly, analyze its current situation and obtain the road map needed for its institutionalization.

The owners of businesses are not only the capital holders who provide money to them. At the same time, all the circles that benefit from that business must look after it: employees, suppliers, NGOs, the state and society.

For the added value businesses provide to continue growing, they must continuously evaluate their accumulated experience and carry it into their next work. At this point, the transfer of experience — both between firms and between sectors — happens through management consultants. Unfortunately, however, especially in our SMEs, the culture of receiving management consultancy has not sufficiently formed. Our businesses need to be made aware of this. In particular, it is critical for firms that turn to a management consultant only when they have a problem to know that the foundations of institutionalization must actually be laid while things are going well.

Being a country with internationally competitive brands is only possible by having deep-rooted businesses with great experience. Great experience means high added value, which means high gross national product and prosperity. For this reason, bosses must be able to say "it continues after me too" — for themselves and for the generations after them — and design their businesses accordingly. This is possible through institutionalization work. To extend your business's life, a Corporate Check-Up comes first.

Author: Atakan Genç