Georgia. To get a fresh view, one of my assistants met with a risk manager
with no knowledge of the risks involved in doing business in either
Florida or Georgia. From among the three finalists. Data is tested and
proven. Objective too. Let me answer—anticipate—questions I think
you’re going to want to know the answers to.
Q: What data did you collect?
A: I collected data of all sorts from all sorts of data sources.
Q: Why is Georgia a better choice than Florida or Illinois?
A: It’s lower risk overall and in key specific areas including weather, transport
and available labor.
Q: What’s the most compelling benefit of choosing Georgia?
A: Diversification. We need to mitigate against the chance of a problem
in weather or labor unrest or zoning or taxation in Florida. If these
problems occur in Florida, and we have more than one factory in
Florida, it is easy to no doubt see the problem. Both factories is
effected, not just one factory. If we have one factory only in Florida,
and these factors change, not a problem. Or rather, not such a bad
problem. Or actually, not likely to be such a bad problem. It’s easy in
retrospect to carefully understand why some of us lean toward selecting
Florida but we should use objective, not subjective, criteria to
make the decision. If we do that, we must go with Georgia.
Here are Brad’s comments about his first draft: “I’m embarrassed to
have you read it. It’s terrible! But having said that, I can now say that it’s
also pretty good. By that I mean it provides some meat-and-potatoes content
for me to work with.”
What was your draft like? Brad’s was just about the right length—280
words, or about one page. He made many grammatical errors, but he also
made several excellent points. How did you do?
STEP THREE: REVISE FOR CLARITY
In the revision exercises that follow, use both Brad’s draft and your own
to give yourself two opportunities to apply the tools. Whether your first