1. Market Share
   Are you gaining, holding or losing market share in each of the segments that constitute your business? Why? Against which competitors?
2. Customer Leverage
   What percentage of your product is sold to customers who have significant leverage over you? Which customers are they, and why do they have leverage? Please provide a list of your top 25 customers and approximate sales volume to each. How

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Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

1. What fundamental value will your current plans generate? Is that performance really defensible given the competitive dynamics of your industry? Is it enough to meet your TSR aspirations?
2. What are the market expectations embedded in your stock price? Is there a gap between what you can deliver and what investors expect? If so, do you have a plan for closing it?
3. What drives valuation multiples in

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Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

• Before you engaged our services, what was your impression of our company?
• How were those initial impressions satisfied during the course of our work?
• Why did you choose our company over the competition?
• If someone called you for a quick reference about us, what is the first thing that would come to mind?

Source: How to Get Your Message Across, Soft and Clear / Carl … [ Read more ]

Subject: Customer Questions

Most companies incorporate five basic building blocks into their financial reporting: the two sides (active and passive) of the balance sheet including the asset register, a profit-and-loss statement, an investment plan or budget, and some form of competitive benchmarking. Recently, shareholder-value-management indicators have been added to the list. These six measures answer some basic questions:

• How much capital do we have, what kind is it,

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Subject: Finance Questions

Scholar and ethics consultant Laura Nash suggests twelve questions that can help leaders avoid the mind game of over simplifying. The following questions may raise ethical issues not otherwise considered, or help generate a variety of “out of the box” alternatives. Before settling on a solution, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have I specified the problem accurately?
2. How would I describe the problem if I were on

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Subject: Decision Making Questions

1. Mind-engaging work
   When was the last time you got so caught up in interesting work that you lost track of time? What were you doing? What was it — about the work itself, how you were going about it, its connection to a greater good — that made this such a wonderfully consuming activity?
2. Seeing the fruits of your labor
   When you want to see the results of

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Subject: Organization Questions

• Do you know what would happen to your bottom line if you raised (or lowered) prices by 1 percent?
• Do you know which of your customers are – or are not – price sensitive and why?
• Where are the pricing leakages occurring in your company?
• What functions or departments control the final pricing decisions?
• How could you change your pricing mechanisms to build your advantages?

Source: Pricing … [ Read more ]

Subject: Marketing Questions

• What’s the nature of a customer’s need for my service or product? Under what circumstances will customers require my service or product? How often will they need me?
• How many ways is it possible for my customers to perceive risk? Is this risk confined to the service or product? Does it apply to the transaction process?
• What do potential customers already know about my service or product?

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Subject: Sales Questions

• Once this is over, what are you going to miss?
• What problems came up that you worked through and how did you do it?
• If you were to update your resume now, how would you describe the accomplishment of this team?
• What new behaviors or skills will you take to your next project?
• What did you learn about what it takes to become a high impact team?
• What would you

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Subject: Teams/Teamwork Questions

Executives need to take a fresh look at their businesses and realize that in the parts that are people intensive, capital-based measures may not provide the insights they need. The risks of not understanding employee performance and failing to set up differentiated rewards based on value creation are substantial. Executives can avoid such problems by asking some basic questions:

• What kinds of business environments are

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Subject: Human Resources Questions