Goals for Growth
Revenue and Timeframe | What revenue level or range will you achieve in year 1, 2, 5? |
Customer Retention | What customer retention level do you want to achieve in year 1,2,5? |
Employee Retention | What employee retention level do you want to achieve in year 1,2, 5? |
New Insights, New Revenue | How much new insight will you seek from customers? How much new revenue will you earn from these insights? |
Improved Bottom Line, including cost savings | How much will you improve your bottom line in year 1, 2, 5? |
Return on Knowledge | How will you monitor and evaluate knowledge-based value created? |
Management Style
Culture: assumptions, behaviors, artifacts – founder beliefs and values, matching founder behaviors, matching artifacts | Do you stand for something in the marketplace? Do you have beliefs and values when working with customers and with each other? |
Do you articulate your 1st priority? | |
Do your leaders demonstrate and support these beliefs and values? | |
Do you demonstrate these beliefs with organizational artifacts? | |
Are your beliefs, values, and priorities available for frequent reference? | |
Common Direction | Do you share company background, have a Board of Advisors, explore current trends, markets, customers, set goals, track results and operational excellence? |
Do your behaviors demonstrate these beliefs and values? | |
Do you support these behaviors within the organization? | |
Do customers identify you with these beliefs and values? | |
Are your customer stories available for frequent reference? | |
Do you provide customer, community, and insight services from interviews and relationship development? | |
Do you track trends, industries, markets for opportunities to expand and/or extend? | |
Do you support complex choices and incentives for ideation on new ideas and/or cost/benefit analysis | |
Retention | Do people leave your organization? Do they stay? Why? |
Do you identify “priority behaviors” for your organization? | |
Do you identify the good and bad consequences/impacts of “priority” behaviors? | |
Do you track the impacts of these consequences? | |
Do you reward based on these consequences? | |
Do you share information about consequences? | |
Do you help each other demonstrate “priority” behaviors? | |
Are these stories available for frequent reference? | |
Are there opportunities to innovate and for individual growth? | |
Do you have trust building initiatives? | |
Decision-making Support | Research vehicles and resources, including subject mater experts, professional associations; company roles and responsibilities; decision-making parameters and criteria |
Are decision-makers identified? | |
Do you motivate and support decisions? | |
Do you track industry, market, competitor, and company context? | |
Do you track and share a history of others’ decisions and consequences? | |
Do you clarify and set intentions for economic decisions? |
Organization
CEO’s Day/Agenda – journaling, dividing to conquer, preparing to delegate | What do you spend your time on? |
Do you spend your time as you would like to do? Is there time for growth considerations? CEO growth? Company growth? Members’ growth? | |
How do you delegate? | |
2nd in Command and/or Successor | Do you have a job description for each, decision-making parameters and criteria for each |
Do you have a backup person or process? | |
Can someone succeed you, when necessary? Does that person know of your intent? | |
Is that person’s responsibility and accountability defined? | |
How does that person make decisions? | |
Leadership Team | Are you ready (or when) to delegate operational decisions and management? |
Do you have leadership candidates within your current organization? | |
Decision-making Support | Are there standards for decision-making in your company? |
Do all employees make decisions accordingly? | |
Do you check on motivations and support your standards for decision-making? | |
Is decision-making satisfactory in leading to your goals? | |
Do you check on motivations and support your standards for decision-making? | |
Employee engagement and temperament | Do you trust and see opportunities for growth? |
Do you track and celebrate results? |
Formal Systems and Processes
Marketing/Sales | Do you have a marketing plan that directs your sales operations? |
Do you have digital, collateral, and in-person marketing initiatives that complement each other? | |
Does your marketing plan target a specific audience? | |
Who is responsible for defining, developing, implementing, and aligning marketing initiatives to all other operations initiatives? | |
Are decisions made according to a set of parameters, criteria, and expectations on results? Track results? | |
Operations | Do you have a workflow for each operational area? |
Are they defined into a process with responsibilities, accountabilities, and results included? | |
Are all operational areas linked/integrated into internal customer needs? | |
Are all areas linked/integrated into external customer needs? | |
Are decisions made according to a set of parameters, criteria, and expectations on results? | |
Do current decisions satisfy your goals? Track results? | |
Finances | Do you track money? |
Do you have defined processes or systems to identify this tracking, including responsibilities and accountabilities for expected results? | |
Do you make a sufficient profit? | |
Do you have extra money/resources for investment in growth? | |
Do you balance a new expense with new value to be created? | |
Do you have a funding strategy? | |
Are your investment decisions made in the context of long-term goals or short-term needs/desires? Track results? | |
Do your decisions impact investments? | |
Are those impacts satisfactory to you? | |
Technology | Do you automate whenever possible? |
Are apps and systems linked? | |
Do they integrate? | |
Do you provide regular training and support on these apps and systems? | |
Do you have obstacles due to automation? | |
Do you evaluate your technology needs and potential solutions? |
Major Growth and Innovation Strategy
Global and Industry Trends | Do you seek industry, trends, and competitor awareness on a regular schedule? |
Expansion | Do you seek and track customer insights for expansion of current products and services? |
Extension | Do you consider extensions of your current products and services to new markets? |
Cost cutting | Do you consider new products and services for new markets based on trends, etc.? |
Decision-making Support | Do you have a set of expectations, parameters, and criteria to guide decision-making on growth? |
Do you track the motivators of that guidance? | |
Do you track results? |
Founder/Owner Engagement
Founder Accountability | Is your founder responsible and accountable for the results of all decisions? |
Thought leadership | Does your founder seek and determine new direction and/or strategy? |
Do new ideas for growth emanate from all? | |
Customer engagement and insights | Do customers help your with new direction, products, services, and/or market? |
Decision-making support | Do decision parameters, criteria, and goal expectations drive decisions? |
Are current decisions satisfactory to achieve your growth goals? | |
Do you track results? |