While I feel strongly about these, I am interested in hearing what other experienced executives, manager and consultants views as their “top five questions”.
- What is the financial performance, on a P&L basis, for the past three years by quarter?
- What are the vision, mission and goals of the business?
- Who are the competitors and how are they performing against you?
- What do the opportunities in the market look like now and over the next 24 months?
- Who are the top customers and what are they saying about our …(people, products, services, etc.)?
Once these questions have been asked and data are presented to respond to them, then it is on to many other questions – internal and external. But almost without exception, these questions are the outgrowth of the five key questions outlined above.
What are your top five questions?
George Franks is the founder of Franks Consulting Group – a management consulting and leadership coaching firm. Visit:
1 comment:
George - great post!
Here is my list:
== 10 Answers Everyone Should Know ==
1. How does the company make money?
2. Are our customers paying up?
3. What could really hurt – or kill – us in the next few years?
4. How are we doing relative to our competitors?
5. If the CEO were hit by a bus tomorrow, who could run this company?
6. How are we going to grow?
7. Are we living within our means?
8. How much does the CEO get paid?
9. How does bad news get to the top?
10. Do I understand the answers to questions 1 through 9?
Who should ask these questions?
Everyone – board members, shareholders, employees, customers, partners, suppliers... these are the new questions that CEOs and leaders in any transparent organization need to be prepared for and comfortable in answering!
-- David Newman
Co-Founder, The BookCamp(tm)
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