The essence of Procedural flaws are not complex, the list is just long.  For starters, academic research and business articles caution that prevention measures are better than cures.  The 'profit-motive' is readily assimilated into a Profit-first mind set; our logic becomes circular by perceiving that Solutions are based on Products without asking what customers are trying to accomplish; Processes are engineered to structure the business and do things better, yet the 'things we do' misrepresent what markets 'really desire' and success results from a Vision that equates to a dream.  Procedural flaws bear the following characteristics:

• they Inherently struggle to render satisfactory execution;
• Procedures which once worked, no longer render reliable results, predictable outcomes;
• Procedures which regulate the functioning and execution of process controls over causal Conditions and Circumstances, become ineffective;
• Activity outputs, reliable Results and predictable Outcomes are at stake and will be compromised.

No market, which represents the pockets of buyers, ever had a 'vision' of the microwave oven; yet the kitchen's need to present a warm plate of food and the need to listen to feed the family has existed for hundreds of years, prior to its launch.  It was only the advent of technology and the application thereof in a unique way that the microwave became a reality, success followed.  No vision, no idea.

Innovation is often seen from a product and creative perspective, missing vast un-served 'customers' numbers, nor remedying under-served markets with better performance, nor growing over-served markets by removing unused over-designed performance mechanisms, nor enhancing mainstream markets by providing better value for money in a sustained performance trajectory that instils confidence and trust.

Business leaders can hardly articulate a compelling reason for existence.  Most cannot align their Purpose with value creation within the organisation.  By default 'Purpose' is substituted by 'Profit', which throughout time remains an Outcome.  Profit cannot be 'made', it is an outcome from a vast range of excellent inputs.  This postulates an Intrinsic flaw seen in all business failures: a circular-roadmap with a Vision (brainstorming ideas), reverse-engineering market-solutions to internal Activity and Products in order to indicate Profit.  Yet, at the end of the road there is no profit, simply because the entire value constellation needed to be re-engineered in order to make some sense of an amorphous Vision.  Most companies still articulate a Statement of Intent that could mean anything to anyone, only to realise that the markets are the sole judge and their needs still remain unmet or unfulfilled.  Academics caution companies that 'an industry begins with the customer and his or her needs, not with a patent, a raw material, or a selling skill' yet few have taken notice of the imperative contained within such statements.

In good-theory we find the root cause of success.  By understanding failure, an intrinsic flaw that cannot be remedied without great cost, organisations are led blindly by amorphous ideas while functional needs are within their grasp.  Failure has an immediate consequence, originating from compounding flaws, a vertical-perception.  All industries have core Assets and Activities by definition, and by following the culture of vertical-structures we imbed Structural flaws into our own businesses.  Skills, processes, supply chains, terms and 'way of doing' are all a result of Industry definitions that compel Products into how they represent our companies and how we try to develop solutions.  A fatal flaw indeed.

When it comes to Competitive Advantage, the unit of measure applied in businesses across the globe, simply bounces between bright Ideas, Products and Profit metrics.  There is a bottomless pit of business casualties referred to as the 'Chasm' in the adoption life-cycle which lures concepts developed from ideas-first, product-solutions and profit-making.  Found within those casualties are vast investments, young and old companies, many jobs and careers, product launches and business launches which would never come close to the stage of maturity.

Quick-fixes have carried forward into forms of a low-touch economy where we remedy Value Constellation fixes to avoid large scale disruption of our own value creation investments into capital, processes and skills; so we find more traces of 'tools' and 'tricks' that only dig the ditches of intrinsic and structural flaws deeper and deeper.

Is it not time that we master some basic principles and turn failures into success?