What’s your definition of “practical” ? Is it something which works, is it something which offers a strategy or a solution, is it along the lines of “seeing the woods for the trees” ?.
To us, practicality is a mindset, it’s about weighing up lots of different factors and issues and coming up with something which is not only of real use in the real world, but which is cost effective. Let’s face it, something may work, but cost always comes into the equation.
When typing the word “practical” into google, in the Uk alone, this delivers nearly 52,000,000 results. Whilst it is common to have a high number of results for any google search, this word, practical, is used all over the place, often to convey a message which is hard to define.
As we say above, in commercial terms, we think it means something which can be shown to be useful and which represents a cost effective way to solve a problem or generate a benefit. The concepts are therefore linked.
Take as an example solicitors. many people would say they don’t always find solicitors to be practical. What do they mean ? well, most of us might agree that it is important to have legal advice in certain situations to minimise risks, such as if buying a business. So, there is definitely some use here. However, is it necessary in that circumstance when, for example buying a shop business which has maybe 5 employees or less and a turnover of say £400,000.00, to have a 200 page document drawn up by lawyers with 30 pages of warranties from the seller. Let’s say that to have that document argued over and amended by lawyers for 3 months might cost both buyer and seller £20,000.00 in legal fees. Aside from the fact that warranties are only as good as the people behind those promises, is it practical to spend that kind of time and money on that type of transaction ? We would say not, and neither is it proportionate to the risk and reward. Consequently, this wouldn’t be a practical approach. Further examples to follow !