Leif Edvinsson (Corporate Director of Intellectual Capital at the Swedish corporation Skandia and co-author of Intellectual Capital: Realizing Your Company’s True Value by Finding its Hidden Brainpower) suggests that companies can evaluate how well they are doing—i.e., assess their customer capital—in part by measuring the following:

• Customer Profile: Who are our customers, and how do they different from our competitors’ customers? What potential do we

… [ Read more ]

Authors: Annie Brooking, Barry Brinker
Source: Intellectual Capital: Tomorrow’s Asset, Today’s Challenge
Subject: Customer Questions

• First time visitors to our store tell us…
• One of the most unusual questions we’ve ever had was…
• One thing people tell us they are confused about our business is…
• I was especially proud when I helped a customer with…
• We do lots of things that customers never see. If they knew this, they would…
• The biggest error made by first time buyers is…
• When we talk with customers

… [ Read more ]

Source: Explorations in Uncovery
Subject: Customer Questions

• Do the company and its leaders have a sense of higher purpose in what they do?

Source:
Making Sense of Executive Pay
by Marcia Blenko
Bain & Company, 1/1/2003

Subject: Corporate Governance Questions

• Is your strategy clear?
• Can it be translated into action?
• Is it measurable?
• Does it have the potential to transform your business?
• Do you measure the true drivers of value in your business?
• Do you link your executive compensation to what drives value – key strategic and financial measures as well as relative share price?
• Are your executives motivated to create a dramatic upside for shareholders?
• Is there a downside

… [ Read more ]

Authors: Marcia Blenko, Orit Gadiesh, Robin Buchanan
Source: Making Sense of Executive Pay
Subject: Corporate Governance Questions

• What products and services do you and your rivals offer, and what are their comparative benefits?
• What companies might launch offerings that are similar to yours?
• How significant are the resources (marketing budget, R&D budget, spin-off, or upgrade plans) your rival plans to deploy?
• How much does it cost you and your competitor to produce comparable products? Does one of you enjoy a cost advantage?
• Where do

… [ Read more ]

Author: Jane Hodges
Source: How to Gather Competitive Research
Subject: Competition Questions

1. The reason our company exists is to: 
2. When it comes to communication, my company (department, unit, etc.) is … because …
3. I receive most of my information from… (my immediate supervisor, the colleagues, bulletin board, the grapevine, other) 
4. I could do a better job if I received the following information in the following manner:
5. I would describe the majority of our meetings as:
6. I would describe communication with my peers

… [ Read more ]

Author: Eileen McDargh
Source: Job Talk – The Heart Of Productivity
Subject: Communications Questions

Organizations as well as individuals benefit from regular self-assessment. To assess whether you have the systems and processes in place to create an open communications culture, consider these questions:

1. Do we have a communications policy to ensure we all understand the importance, accountability and process of communications in our organization?
2. Do the communications in our organization support our mission, vision and strategy?
3. Is our head

… [ Read more ]

Authors: Chitra Reddin, Ralph Beslin
Source: How Leaders Can Communicate to Build Trust
Subject: Communications 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

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Business Continuity / Crisis Questions

Decision-makers will inevitably see your idea from their own perspective. In other words, your idea must be expressed in terms that address the practical business concerns of the potential buyer. Below are hot button questions for C-level execs

• Chief Executive Officer: Will it increase the value of the firm?
• Chief Financial Officer: Where’s the return on investment?
• Chief Operations Officer: Can we execute on this plan?
• Chief Information

… [ Read more ]

Author: Geoffrey James
Source: How to Sell an Idea
Subject: Innovation Questions

As you consider building your own Value Growth Agenda, ask yourself the following questions:

Competitive position

• Is our market value growing as fast as it could?
• Do investors value our company fairly?
• Are we as profitable as our toughest competitors?
• Are we meeting our revenue and earnings growth targets?
• Have we created barriers to entry for new entrants in our industry?
• Can we pinpoint why customers choose us over our competitors?

Patterns and … [ Read more ]

Subject: Strategy Questions