A Geiger counter is enclosed in a steel chamber connected wit ha tiny amount of uranium, so little that in the next hour one atomic decay is as probable as improbable. An amplifying relay makes sure that the first atomic decay crashes a little retort containing hydrocyanic acid. This and – cruelly – a cat are contained in the steel chamber. After an hour, then, in the ψ-function of the total system – sit venia verbo – a living and dead cat are smeared out in equal parts.

Correspondence between Erwin Schrödinger and Albert Einstein, 1935

Just like Schrödinger’s Cat, which is both dead and not dead until an observation is made, so too businesses exist with a chaotic ψ-function, adjusting their reality to that of a particular observer, forever holding truth in a precarious balance – unless they are constantly monitored to prevent changes of state. The act of following the evolution of these businesses, substantiated with evidence, will collapse their ψ-functions to a particular solution. It is only the existence of such documents that unequivocally proves that they are in the state they claim to be in.

In cases where the defined state of the business is misaligned with the desired one, characterised by the strategic vision of the company, this has to be transformed to re-establish the coherence necessary to achieve the desired objectives.

A powerful tool to couple the two states is the balanced scorecard, which shifts the emphasis of managing by objectives to include all aspects of the company, such as financial stability, customer satisfaction, process efficiency, and employee growth. Applying such methodologies will allow the establishment of a reporting system on results obtained vis-à-vis the expected targets, thereby identifying those areas that necessitate corrections. Such a correlation can then also be used to describe the company’s performance, in a purely objective way.

IKU Consulting can not only help uncover the truth about your firm’s state, but can also intervene to help you align your current organisation with its vision, through the use of such tools as the balanced scorecard and project reporting that will back up with facts your assertion of its state.