SERVICES
│ Ph.0 Vision & Background
Build hypotheses about business issues from IR materials
A hands-on course where you discover the operational structure and department-level issues of a fictional company, "Azika Foods," on your own — using its IR briefing materials. Build the habit of asking "why?" from the way the numbers move.
─ ARTICLE COVER
Consulting Skills ／ Ph.0 Vision & Background
§I ─ POSITION
The entry point of Ph.0 "Vision & Background." Before the client kickoff, experience the difference between bringing your own hypotheses to the table and merely going around collecting answers in discovery.
§II ─ TAKEAWAYS
Read distortions in the business structure from the way the numbers move in financial reports
Connect the interplay of revenue mix, gross margin, inventory, and labor cost back to actual operations
Walk into the first client meeting ready to bring a hypothesis and debate it, not just listen
§III ─ EXCERPT
¶ 01
A listed company's IR materials embed clues about its operational structure as numbers. A rising SG&A ratio, deteriorating days of inventory, a margin drop in a specific segment — every one of these traces back to the work of some department. The skill of reading them decisively changes the quality of the hypotheses you build before discovery.
¶ 02
Whole → cost → business → department → management. This order steadily narrows down where the problem lives. The sequence matters.
| # | Section | Numbers to watch | Starting point of the hypothesis |
|---|---|---|---|
| ① | Performance highlights | 3-year trend of revenue, operating profit, operating margin | Overall trend (growth / plateau / decline) |
| ② | Cost structure | Raw-material / manufacturing / logistics / SG&A ratios | Which cost is squeezing profit |
| ③ | Segment performance | Revenue, profit, YoY for each segment | Which business is carrying the company |
| ④ | Department KPIs | Days of inventory, turnover rate, automation rate, etc. | Where the operational distortion sits |
| ⑤ | Risks & mid-term plan | Likelihood of each risk / countermeasures | How management perceives its priorities |
¶ 03
When you look at a number, always compare it on three axes: year-over-year (time), industry comparison (space), and absolute level (benchmark). On a single axis you cannot separate an "industry-wide trend" from a "problem unique to this company."
¶ 04
Recurring movements in the numbers have typical operational causes behind them. Those are the starting points for hypotheses.
¶ 05
Turn a fact in the IR materials (sky) into a hypothesis (rain), then into the next verification action (umbrella).
| Sky (fact) | Rain (hypothesis) | Umbrella (verification action) |
|---|---|---|
| Days of inventory went 42 → 56 | Inventory management is manual and person-dependent | Check the order data for late-night and emergency orders |
| Purchasing dept turnover 12.4% (company-wide 7.8%) | There is a load specific to the purchasing dept | Confirm the overtime reality in a department interview |
| Every item on the DX roadmap marked "planned" | A plan exists but there is no execution structure | Check budget and staffing in an IT-department interview |
| Price pass-through rate 39% (industry 68%) | Weak negotiating power / customer profitability isn't visible | Ask sales about the state of per-customer profitability tracking |
¶ 06
IR documents soften their wording. When you see the following phrases, always read what's behind them. "Partly due to ~" may be hiding another main cause, and "largely in line with plan" can turn out, once you check the numbers, to be a miss.
§∞ ─ DOWNLOAD
─ EXERCISE
12 exercises plus a bonus question. It includes a workout where, from an IR statement like "days of inventory worsened from 60 to 90," you hypothesize which department's work holds the bottleneck. Comes with sample answers and grading points.
Lecture slides
Every slide of the course
Cheat sheet
Quick reference for the field
Exercises
With answers and grading
Advanced / test
Hands-on plus rubric
INCLUDED PDFS ─ 7files
§IV ─ RELATED