409 Posts Found

Sound disaster-recovery planning has to be on the agenda in the boardroom. But the CEO can’t give directors conclusive answers without having first talked at length with the CIO. Here are some of the most pressing questions.

1. Tell me about our response simulation and rehearsal plans and activities. When was the last time we had a full-scale rehearsal of an IT disaster recovery?
2. What did

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Authors: Gary A. Curtis, Gil Brodnitz | Source: IT Disaster: It’s Not a Matter of If—It’s a Matter of When | Subject: IT Questions

When you ask these questions of first-line employees, you quickly discover that in most companies there’s still a big gap between the rhetoric of innovation and the reality:

• How have you been trained as a business innovator? What investment has the company made in teaching you how to innovate?
• If you have a new idea, how much bureaucracy do you have to go through to get

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Authors: Gary Hamel, Joanna Barsh, Lowell Bryan | Subject: Innovation Questions

• How would the key decision-makers be placed in communication with each other quickly so they could be informed and make a joint decision? What is their advance standard of how fast they would commit to making a decision? Would all of them be involved in the decisions related to financial commitments involved in decision-making? If not, who would be?
• Who inside and outside your organization

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Author: Kare Anderson | Source: Be the Face They Trust When the Crisis Hits | Subject: Business Continuity / Crisis Questions

1. Can the client clearly articulate the objectives and anticipated benefits of the project? An ill-defined project often signals that the client is still wrestling with what needs to be done. In that case, you can offer to help the client frame the problem, but it’s premature to jump into the sales process. Until you nail down the objectives and anticipated benefits, expect the

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Author: Michael W. McLaughlin | Source: When to Walk Away from a Sale: Nine Pivotal Questions | Subject: Sales Questions

Ask potential application service providers the following questions, supplied by Greg Gianforte, CEO of ASP RightNow Technologies. There isn’t a single set of correct answers; the point is that a few simple yes and no questions won’t generally get you enough information to know whether the ASP offers an appropriate level of security for your particular application.

Physical Security

• Describe the physical security and disaster recovery

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Author: Greg Gianforte | Source: What to Ask an ASP | Subject: IT Questions

Okay, you have decided to raise venture money. You have had a few meetings with a VC, presented to some partners, and you are in the pre-termsheet pipeline with a venture firm that you’re interested in. Okay, but that is a much more perilous place than most entrepreneurs understand, so here are four questions you need to get answered right away:

1. Do I have

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Author: Paul Kedrosky | Source: Four Unusual Questions You Should Ask in Raising Venture Money | Subject: Entrepreneurship Questions

1. What is your competitive advantage? Simply being in an industry with successful competitors is not enough. You need to effectively communicate how your company is different and why you have an advantage over the competition. Do you have a better distribution channel? Key partners? Proprietary technology?
2. Who is behind the company? “Bet on the jockey, not the horse” is a familiar saying among investors.

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Author: Mike Drummond | Source: Under the Microscope: Funding in 2001 | Subject: Entrepreneurship Questions

1. What will your role in the business be, and what do you expect mine to be? The co-CEO game can be difficult, so consider putting one person in charge.
2. How will we split up ownership, how will we divide profits and losses, and how will we each be paid? Some experts suggest avoiding a 50-50 ownership split. But if you are equal partners, be

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Author: Stephanie Clifford | Source: 10 Questions to Ask Your Partner (Before You Sign an Agreement) | Subject: Entrepreneurship Questions

Different people learn differently. In order to help you be successful as a business mentor, review the practical tips below so you can adapt your teaching styles and get the most from your people and their potential:

1. Do they like to gather information through words, and if so, what kind? Everyone responds to the spoken word, but some people are more “doers” than listeners

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Author: A. J. Schuler | Source: Becoming a Successful Mentor: How to Recognize the Different Ways Your People Learn | Subject: Management Questions

1. Are we fit to fight? Before even thinking about engaging in war, it is safe to wonder whether one is fit to fight. Companies faring worst in the boom-bust of the 1990s were those with high debt levels and/or over-capacity. So, the first question is: have we cleaned our house sufficiently structurally to be fit to fight—no more overweight soldiers, no more

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Authors: Herman Vantrappen, Hubertus M. Mühlhäuser, Nils Bohlin | Source: Smart Growth: A Road Map for Executives | Subject: Management Questions

The word “leader” stands for someone who leads, enables, articulates, decides, encourages, and rewards. Although these are not the only traits exhibited by successful leaders, they do epitomize those characteristics shared by nearly all those who successfully influence others. Besides applying the general guidelines noted above, those seeking to become effective leaders should ask themselves critical questions as part of an on-going effort to improve … [ Read more ]

Author: David F. Wilson | Source: Being a Leader | Subject: Leadership Questions

Before undertaking any knowledge management effort, answer three fundamental questions:

1. What is the work group? The first task of knowledge management is to select what one might call a unit of analysis or a unit of management. Then place primary responsibility for the content of knowledge management there. This is not necessarily a functional unit. Cross-functional project teams, for example, clearly need a “knowledge

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Author: Thomas A. Stewart | Source: The Case Against Knowledge Management | Subject: Knowledge Management Questions

Your IT system needs a major overhaul, and hordes of consultants would love to fix it for you. How do you find one who’ll get the work done on time and on budget? Start by asking these questions.

1. What happens if I’m not satisfied at the end of the project? A mediocre IT consultant will start talking fast about money-back guarantees. A smart one

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Author: Jennifer Gill | Source: Smart Questions for Your Tech Consultant | Subject: IT Questions

Michael Michalko, author, Thinkertoys: A Handbook for Business Creativity, recommends a technique invented by Alex Osborn, a pioneer in understanding creativity, in which you accept that there really are no new ideas, only updates of existing ones. With that in mind, take the subject you want to think about and ask the questions below to generate ideas. SCAMPER is a mnemonic to remind you … [ Read more ]

Authors: David Lidsky, Michael Michalko | Source: Brain Calisthenics | Subject: Innovation Questions

Overall innovation strategy must answer three questions:

1. Where to Innovate? Depending on their specific situation and ambitions companies must decide if they want to focus on new products for existing markets, on developing new markets, etc. Beyond this, they sometimes have to re-evaluate whether to change their position in the value chain through backwards integration, forward integration, etc. And if the current market position

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Authors: Per I. Nilsson, Thorsten Gerhard | Source: Innovation at Work: The Innovation Imperative | Subject: Innovation Questions

Can the technologies you’re considering pass this test suggested by innovation-diffusion theorist Everett Rogers?

• Relative advantage: Is the innovation better than the status quo? Better than competing alternatives? Is it compelling enough to get users to switch, given the expectations about how others will behave?
• Compatibility: How well does the innovation complement other products your users have? Is it interoperable?
• Simplicity: How simple is it to explain

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Author: Bhaskar Chakravorti | Source: The Circuitous Path to an IT Payoff | Subject: Innovation Questions

Searching for opportunities is an almost impossible task in the absence of clear guidelines for where to look and what to look for. The innovation process must therefore start with an attempt to create a vision of the company’s preferred areas of growth. The vision should be as concrete as possible. It should lead to an explicit set of strategic priorities and a broad map … [ Read more ]

Author: Jean-Philippe Deschamps | Source: Managing Innovation: From Serendipity to Process | Subject: Innovation Questions

Motorola has developed a broad-based approach to identify, resolve and elevate employee issues. In what is called the Individual Dignity Entitlement Program, employees are asked to answer the following questions every quarter and review them with their supervisors:

1. Do you have a substantive, meaningful job that contributes to the success of Motorola?
2. Do you know the on-the-job behaviors and have the knowledge base to be

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Authors: Albert J. Viscio, Bruce A. Pasternack, Shelley S. Keller | Source: The Triumph of People Power and the New Economy | Subject: Human Resources Questions

1. Does your desire to make things work better occupy as much of your time as fulfilling your duty to maintain them the way they are?
2. Do you get excited about what you are doing at work?
3. Do you think about new business ideas while driving to work or taking a shower?
4. Can you visualize concrete steps for action when you consider ways to make a new

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Author: Carol Orsag Madigan | Source: Agents of Innovation | Subjects: Entrepreneurship Questions, Personal and Career Development

Looking for office space? Make sure you’re getting the best deal by asking the right questions.

• What’s my base year? If you sign a full-service lease, the landlord factors your portion of the building’s annual operating expenses–utilities, janitorial services, maintenance–into the rent. After your first, or base, year, he’s entitled to “pass through” any increases incurred in operating the building. That may come in the

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Author: Jennifer Gill | Source: Smart Questions for Your Landlord | Subject: Finance Questions