Some people find it quite difficult to understand the gap analysis when in reality, it is not that hard. If you can’t understand this concept from a business perspective, you should understand the word “gap” in general means. You know that gap means the difference between two points or two objects and it is the same meaning that gap analysis carries.
This is the process that is implemented in businesses and especially in project management to find the current stage of development and progress, the finish line or the future goals of a company, and the gap between them. This is generally an analysis to understand the gap between points A and B. Gap analysis defines a company’s position and progress from the market’s perspective.
This not only allows the owners and managers of the company to improve their progress but also lets them overcome the setbacks and errors that are keeping their company from growing on an ideal level.
Importance of Gap Analysis:
- Defining future goals for a company:
The most important element of running a company is to have some kind of future goals. As a business owner, if you don’t have any objectives or goals to reach, you can’t analyze if your company is going in the right direction or even if it’s making any progress or not. Gap analysis helps define and explain the future goals and objectives of a company. - Allocation of resources:
Resources are the second most important part of a business. You can run your company in any way that you want but no one out there can run a business without money not even for the non-profit organizations. Gap analysis allows you to foresee the future of your company and thus helps you to allocate the resources and financial help for your company in time. - Competition evaluation:
Gap analysis allows business owners to understand the competition in the market between their company and other companies. This not only helps them to change their policies, goals, objectives, and plans but also allows them to run the business differently to stand ahead of other companies in the market.
Application of Gap Analysis in Business:
Unlike many other business plans and applications, gap analysis is only used by top-level companies and global organizations. The reason behind that is that this is not a cheap option that any company can go with but it includes hundreds of hours of market research and identification and analysis of the company’s future goals which is not the ideal expense for new or small companies. Most of the time, the top management of a company uses the gap analysis to define the future goals and objectives of the company and the obstacles and possible setbacks that the company might encounter in the future. This allows the company and business owners to foresee the problems and possible delays to reach the finish line.
Here is a preview of a Free Sample Gap Analysis Diagram created using MS Word,
here is the download link for this Gap Analysis Diagram,