Strategic Discipline Blog

Who is the founder, president, chief executive officer (CEO), and chairman of the board of one of the largest corporations in the world whose annual detachment exercise helped him to come up with an idea that transformed his business and industry?  I’m sorry.  I’m afraid I’m going to make you wait until my next blog. 

Instead I hope to challenge you a bit by asking some questions.  Todd Klein “Built to Change” suggested these questions as points of emphasis to illustrate the difference in the transforming companies he discussed in his book.  We can’t all build businesses that transform our industries, markets and the world around us, however we can utilize these ideas to help our companies succeed. 

Ask yourself these questions and see if it doesn’t spark some ideas to help you grow.  I’ll cover the reasons behind these questions in my succeeding blogs. 

1. List five things you know better than your competitors about your customers.

2. What industry metric are you measuring for no good reason?

3. How do you measure fun in your company?

4. When have you scheduled your next offsite in the next 90 days?

5. Find one process you can put in place tomorrow that will enable someone with half your experience to be twice as effective as your job.

6. Fine one rule that everybody knows isn’t helpful and eliminate it right now.

7. When you do long term planning how deep into the organization do you go?

8. Who in your organization is specifically charged with customer service advocacy?

9. Write the single word that captures the idea of universality in your business.

10. If your board fired you tomorrow and you could only hire one person from your company in order to eviscerate your former employer, who would it be and what department would they come from?

As Gazelles coaches we typically ask some form of these questions as we help our clients move through their meeting and planning rhythms.  In fact in answering the first question at the Growth Summit we determined that a competitive advantage Gazelles coaches enjoy is the ability to ask the right questions to ensure our clients are succeeding and transforming.  If you’re looking for someone to serve as a catalyst to help grow your business, wouldn’t you like to have someone who is asking these questions of you and your executive team?