409 Posts Found

1. Do you have an explicit TSR target guiding your strategic plan? Is that target appropriate given the expectations embedded in your stock price and the ability of your business plans to deliver improved performance? Do you understand how each of your businesses will contribute to meeting your TSR goal?
2. What are the historical sources of TSR for your company? How does your historical profile compare with

… [ Read more ]

Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

At the very minimum, a segmentation should answer the following questions in order to be successful:

• Which consumer segments represent the largest profit pools in our category?
• What is our share of wallet across segments today?
• How should we prioritize the various growth opportunities within and across segments?
• What messages and offerings will command the attention of these consumers?
• How can we position our brands and sub-brands for

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Marketing Questions

• Is there a practice that must be stopped immediately, or a product withdrawn from the market without delay, to protect the public-and the company’s reputation?
• What is the shape and size of the problem?
• What is the next phase of the inquiry?
• Should outside experts be retained?
• Should the board be informed?
• Must the matter be disclosed to authorities under law, should it be disclosed voluntarily, or should it

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Crisis Management Questions

1. Are your costs (and prices) declining as fast as competitors?
2. Are your costs as low as best demonstrated practice?
3. Are all your products and services truly making money?
4. Is your profitability as high as your RMS justifies?
5. How big is your market and how fast is it growing?
6. Which capabilities create your competitive advantages?
7. Which are your most attractive customer segments?
8. How loyal are your customers?
9. Where are your share of industry profits

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

• What can you tell me about your organization… and yourself?
• What do you like about what you’re currently doing?
• What don’t you like about your current situation?
• What would you like to be enhanced or improved?
• What can you tell me about your priorities?
• What prompted you to start this project now?
• What can you tell me about your decision-making process?
• How do you

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Sales Questions

• What does success look like in this scenario?
• In what markets will you play and which customers will you serve?
• How will you serve those customers?
• What capabilities will you need to have in place?
• How would you know if this scenario were going to come true?

The first four questions get executives to clearly articulate the growth opportunity. The last one gets them thinking about when it … [ Read more ]

Subject: Strategy Questions

There are several key decisions that must be made when designing a business:

Customer selection (including channel):

• What are the greatest profit growth opportunities that fall within my planning horizon?
• Which customers are crucial to those opportunities?
• What high-value customer opportunity should be targeted?

Value Proposition and Customer Priorities:

• What are the unsatisfied needs that drive the behavior of targeted customers

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

A customer’s product experience passes through six basic stages. To help companies assess the quality of a buyer’s total experience, we have identified the key questions for each stage. Individually, these questions may be obvious, but taken together, they uncover the full picture of the experience cycle.

1. Purchasing
• How long does it take to find the product you need?
• Is the place of purchase attractive and

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Buyer Experience Cycle

• Who should be members of the team?
• What is the charter or mandate of the team?
• What is the appropriate “value-added work” of the team?
• What are the roles and expectations of different members?
• What procedures will be used to manage work, to build an agenda, to solve problems, to make decisions, etc.?
• What types of interactions will be required among members, and what

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Teams/Teamwork Questions

• Where should I choose to compete?
• Who should my core customers be?
• How should I differentiate myself competitively?
• How should I discourage competitive investment?

Source:
Achieving Full Potential through Strategies that Work
by Chris Zook
Bain & Company, 1/1/1996

Subject: Strategy Questions

• How do we define sustainable development as it applies to our business and core values?
• Where do we see sustainable development trends and drivers affecting our business in the future?
• Are we doing enough to address these trends today, or could we clearly be doing more to gain business opportunities in this way?
• Do we have all the competencies we need to make progress?
• Can we learn from

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Social Responsibility Questions

• Does the firm/project make use of an especially underutilized asset, i.e., certain segments of the labor force/current office space?
• Will the firm/project create significant contracting opportunities for local firms, especially small/disadvantaged business?
• Does the firm/project fill a hole in the Austin economic base, such as key supplier relationships?
• Does the firm/project have the potential to either seed a new cluster or bring additional firms to Austin?
• Will the

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Social Responsibility Questions

• Will the bulk of the new hires be local or imported?
• What is the average wage paid? How does it compare to the local or national industry average?
• What is the median wage paid? How are job categories and wages distributed within the overall structure?
• What training is provided? Are there opportunities for advancement? Are there funds available for additional education (tuition match, etc.)?
• Does the firm actively promote diversity

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Social Responsibility Questions

• Is the firm a headquarters operation? Does it represent the “headquarters” of a new product/service?
• Is the firm growing? Is the firm in a growing industry? How stable is the firm?
• Does the firm or project significantly enhance the local tax base?
• Does the firm make a disproportionate demand on infrastructure/environment?

Source:
Austin’s Economic Future: The Mayor’s Task Force on the Economy – Subcommittee Findings
[ Read more ]

Subject: Social Responsibility Questions

• Does the firm have a track record of being an active participant in the arts and cultural life of the communities where it operates?
• Will the firm have a proactive cultural outreach program?
• Does the firm actively encourage employee volunteer/charitable efforts?
• Does the firm have a track record of conducting its business in an environmentally responsible way?
• Does the firm have a track record of supporting environmental initiatives/concerns?

[ Read more ]

Subject: Social Responsibility Questions

1. Economic: Will the project generate prosperity and enhance the affected economies?
2. Social: Will the project be implemented in a socially responsible manner and benefit the affected communities in a fair and equitable way?
3. Environmental Quality: Will the project cause long-term damage to the environment?
4. Use of Natural Resources: Will the project protect and enhance natural capital?

Source:
Bringing Corporate Responsibility Down to Earth
by Justin Keeble
[ Read more ]

Subject: Social Responsibility Questions

Risk Assessment/Management
Does your organization:

• Regularly perform vulnerability assessments?
• Act on the results of a vulnerability assessment in a timely manner?
• Identify critical information assets?
• Identify the threats to critical information assets?
• Determine the financial and other impacts of a successful attack on critical information assets?
• Evaluate and manage your information security risks on an ongoing basis? In other words, are risks to critical information assets managed

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Security Questions

• What percentage of your sales presentation/proposal is devoted to describing your company and your solution?
• What percentage of your sales presentation/proposal is devoted to describing your customer’s business, their problems and objectives?
• How well do customers understand their own problems?
• How much of your presentation is focused on persuading and convincing?
• How well can your customers connect your solutions to their business situation?

Source:
The Presentation … [ Read more ]

Subject: Sales Questions

• Do you know who your most profitable customers are and why? Or who the most valuable prospects are? Does your sales team spend the majority of their time focused on the highest value targets?
• Is your value proposition compelling and relevant for the highest-value segments?
• Do you tailor your selling approach and offering only by customer size and geography, or also by customer value?
• Is your sales

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Sales Questions

Who?
A few excellent “who” questions you might consider using in order to convert “suspects” into highly qualified prospects are:

• Who has the most obvious need for your products or services?
• Who are the ideal prospects? Don’t limit yourself to existing customers.
• Who has the money to buy your products or services immediately?
• Who has the most urgent need to buy your products?
• Who has influence on

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Sales Questions