409 Posts Found

• What are our unifying values? What have we stood for over time? The ability to provide context and meaning for the work people do is key.
• How do you organize your time? Is it spent on what you say is important? If you want to know if you’re really adding value, look at your calendar.
• Whom do you depend on? Your real work team

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Subject: Organization Questions

• What are the general behavioral implications of this change, for us and for staff?
• What specific behavioral changes must leadership make to convince staff of our sincerity?
• How will we ensure (not guess, hope, or assume) lower-level managers will make the behavioral transition?

Source:
Easing Fear of New Technology
by Tom Penderghast, DBA
Graziadio Business Report, Fall 1998

Subject: Change Management Questions

Following are some questions that may help you focus on areas that may still need to be addressed if you are planning some technological change.

• Are there any formal and/or informal norms that the planned technological change will impact?
• How much does your planned technological change build on the existing values and procedures used in your organization?
• Can you identify the positions or individuals that are

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Subject: Change Management Questions

• What about the current structure helps or hinders the organization in achieving its strategy?
• What roles and responsibilities are clear or not clear?
• Are the organizational goals clear or is there confusion?
• Which customer needs are being satisfied or not met?
• Which people skills exist or are missing?
• Which work flows are efficient and effective? Or not?
• Which informal processes support organizational goals? Or work against them?
• What aspects of

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Subject: Organization Questions

Dave Anderson, author of “No-Nonsense Leadership: Real World Strategies to Maximize Personal & Corporate Potential” (Learn to Lead Press, 2001), offers an eight-point reality check to help you determine whether entitlement is still alive and well in your organization:

1. You base promotions and job retention on tenure, not performance.
2. You give bonuses, whether or not people have earned them.
3. Employees get raises regardless of

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Organization 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

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Organization Questions

• Where are you going? (preferred future)
• What do you believe in? (principles)
• Why do you exist? (purpose)

Source:
Who Are You and What Do You Want?
by Jim Clemmer
The CEO Refresher

Subject: Organization Questions

The following list of questions about supply chain characteristics can be used as a beginning benchmark of how well your company is progressing with supply chain management.

• We clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of our current supply chain sub-processes and have developed action plans for improvement?
• We have defined our supply chain improvement objectives and have unwavering management commitment to achieve superior

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Subject: Operations Questions

Consider these questions in the context of your overall company, business units, and IT department. Do you have: 

• A focused approach to managing alliances?
• A formal process for creating service strategies?
• A formal process for maximizing sourcing and distribution?
• A new-product development process that considers standard components and processes, and includes suppliers and customers?
• A way to incorporate changing customer needs and new technologies in your processes and

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Subject: Operations Questions

Ask the supplier to respond to the following questions with a rating from one (lowest) to 10 (highest):

• Do you enjoy doing business with us?
• Do you feel we treat you as a vendor or as a business partner?
• Do our employees treat you courteously?
• Are we a larger or a smaller customer for you (10=largest)?
• Do we supply you with enough information

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions

• How do our existing manufacturing capabilities limit or constrain product design? What portion of these constraints is truly unchangeable and what portion is bureaucratic, procedural, cultural, and/or political?
• Will our next-generation (or generation-after-next) products require radically new materials or processes? If so, what are we doing now to prepare our manufacturing organization to incorporate those new materials or procedures?
• How much do our product

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions

• If we were freed from the tasks we are doing today, what could we do to increase the shareholder value (in other words, the competitive advantage) of our company?
• What tasks are we doing today that we would be willing to surrender, as long as we were sure they would be handled correctly?

Source:
Directions in Collaborative Commerce: Managing the Extended Enterprise
by … [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions

1. Which value chain issues are most troublesome for your company (e.g., customer retention)?
2. Which pain points do you have with key trade partners that hurt your revenue potential or increase your costs? Or impede your competitiveness?
3. Which competitive capabilities do you believe your competitors are better at? How critical are these to your business?
4. Do you have visibility of demand, inventory, and/ or product availability

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions

1. Every product has a well-defined service, manufacturing and inventory deployment strategy?
2. We have a comprehensive and effective sales and operations planning process that is management’s throttle on sales, production, inventory and lead-time?
3. We have agreements with key vendors for short cycle deliveries and mutually agreed upon goals for continuous improvement?
4. Will improved supply chain management performance give us the leverage to transform ourselves into market place leaders?
5. Have

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Subject: Operations Questions

1. Do your suppliers have lower operating costs than yours, and do you get low prices from suppliers?
2. Do your suppliers provide you with product or process innovations?
3. Do your suppliers have products and processes of the best quality?
4. Do your suppliers reduce your costs and risk in product launches?
5. Are your suppliers financially healthy?
6. Do you formulate unique plans for each supplier to help you build competitive advantage?
7. Does your supplier

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions

1. What aspects of your supply chain have the most influence on your brand promise and your customers’ buying experience?
2. Is your brand promise aligned with your current supply chain capabilities?
3. How can you ensure that marketing executives know your supply chain’s capabilities and limitations while supply chain executives know the brand promise and their role in fulfilling it?

Source:
How Your Supply Chain … [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions

• What do you want to do, and how will you know when you’ve done it?
• Who are the intended beneficiaries?
• What benefits do our programs create?
• What do we want to maximize?
• How do we define success?
• What won’t we do?
• What would make us obsolete?
• What do you think your beneficiaries need in order to achieve the intended impact?
• What are the most important elements

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Subject: Nonprofit Questions

• Which of your goals are “must have” vs. “would like to have?”
• What will you say if the other parry says “no” to your opening offer?
• What concessions are you willing to make? (Check with your accountant about such issues as payment terms and tax implications.)
• What credible excuse can you give if you need to buy time to confer with others and/or think about an offer

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Subject: Negotiation Questions

Traditional Measurement Needs
Financial

• Are we focusing on the right financial measures to judge the success of our company/divisions/units?
• How much of our value is reflected in our balance sheet? Do we have the right balance between financial and non-financial measures to address key intangible assets beyond the balance sheet?

Operational

• Do we have the right short-term operational measures in place to respond

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Metrics Questions

• Will overall sales strategy – as well as individual company and product strategies – be enhanced by an integrated sales force?
• Is there a large overlap among potential customer segments?
• Do companies market products to common customer segments?
• Do the products require similar types of sales skills?
• Does the sales force contact the same type/level of decision maker?
• Are customers generally amenable to the merger?

Source:
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Subject: Mergers and Acquisitions Questions