How do we make sure we learn the lessons of 2008-09?

I have this experience annually. The calendar says it is 1 July, the very first day of the new financial year, yet I feel like I have been living in it for at least six months.

Because budgets and plans for 2010 were formulated long ago, sales pipelines stretch to the middle of the financial year, and because last week a client was even talking about his Christmas party, FY10 feels like an old friend not a new acquaintance.

Business may be a life led in the future, but this week I am going to suggest we take a backwards look. So as FY09 passes into history (and the hands of auditors) my tip is to reflect on the year just gone.

Nothing particularly revolutionary about that – I hear you say – CEO’s everywhere are drafting up their annual reviews. And indeed they are. Carefully managed pieces, balancing optimism and bravado with a modicum of humility, are being assembled with great dexterity.

But without wishing to spoil the surprise, my guess is that we will be hearing that “despite the GFC, and against the odds we have had a good year”.

But what of the real story?

This year we have been blessed with a great alibi: the GFC is the excuse for a less-than performance year. But using the GFC to justify results for FY09 won’t help build a brilliant FY10.

What will help, however, is a warts-and-all look at FY09.

Recently I have been helping a number of companies to reflect on the year just gone. With an emphasis on reflection as a factual look at events and their results, rather than a process to attribute blame or express regret, we have been working through questions such as these:

• Could we have done better?

• Was an increase in sales of ‘x’ % enough?

• What have we done to counter adverse consumer trends?

• How could we have better dealt with the GFC?

• Did we push our use of technology ahead enough?

• Did we develop our products and enhance our service enough?

• How could we have delivered better on our brand promise?

• How did we make our profits?

• Did we give people what they wanted?

• What did our people contribute?

• What shape were we in on 1 July, 2008?

• What shape are we in now?

Of course if you are going to do this exercise, the most important bit (but often overlooked) is to take the learnings and make a decision to do things differently.

Fortunately, and despite my feelings to the contrary, there are still 364 days of FY10 left to do that in.

Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses: Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business”  and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).

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