Amar Alamar: The Discipline of Problem Solving in Business

Problem solving in business is not a talent. It is a discipline.

Most deal problems are not solved by jumping straight to a structure. Too often a borrower, an adviser or a lender reaches for a familiar product or a familiar template before the real issue is clear. Cash flow timing, exit risk, valuation support, or a mismatch between the asset and the debt can look like the same symptom on the surface and need quite different answers.

I approach complex problems with a sequence that starts with accurate diagnosis, then moves through solution design, stakeholder alignment and disciplined execution. Skipping the first step is expensive. It produces solutions that address symptoms rather than root causes, and it burns time with lenders, valuers and counterparties who are solving a different problem from the one that actually exists.

Diagnosis sounds slow. In practice it usually saves more time than it costs. Taking a clear view of the constraint means fewer false starts with lenders, fewer redraws on the valuation, and a structure that addresses the root issue rather than the most obvious one. The question is not "what product fits?" It is "what is actually broken, and for whom?"

Four habits keep that discipline honest.

Name the problem in plain language, without the preferred solution attached. If the sentence already contains the answer, diagnosis is incomplete.

Separate symptoms from causes. A declined credit application is a symptom. The cause might be serviceability, security, sector appetite, timing, or incomplete information. Those require different responses.

Check the problem with the people who live it (operators, finance, credit) before locking a structure. Their constraints are data.

Only then design. Structure should follow diagnosis, not precede it. In my experience, the deals that move cleanly are the ones where that diagnosis happened early, before anyone got attached to a particular solution.

A multidisciplinary background helps because commercial problems rarely sit in one box. Finance, operations, regulation and relationships interact. Seeing the problem from more than one angle is part of the discipline, not a substitute for it.