1. Does your group have a clear statement of strategy?
2. Can everyone describe that strategy in one or two sentences?
3. Is the strategy in written form?
4. Does the strategy clearly differentiate you from competitors?
5. Does your strategy serve as a guide to what
not to do?
6. Do you have a disproportionate amount of resources invested in one of the three value disciplines?
7. Do you have effective tools for communicating strategy throughout the organization?
8. Has the organization's strategy been translated for relevance to the
different levels and functional areas so that it is driving everyone's
daily activities?
9. Are you capturing as much of your current customer's business as you would like?
10. Are you taking significant business away from your competitors?
11. Are your revenue and profitability meeting target expectations?
12. Is the group's purpose (mission, vision, values) in writing?
13. Do you have a formal strategy development process in place?
14. Are all your managers trained in strategic thinking skills and
able to contribute to strategy development at some level?
15. Does your group conduct initial strategic thinking sessions separately
from strategic planning and budget meetings?
16. Is the strategy development process facilitated by someone who can
bring an objective perspective and is not affected by internal "politics"?
17. Is the strategic plan clearly linked to manager's daily activities?
18. Is the plan updated regularly to reflect changes and remain useful?
19. Are the different functional groups (marketing, sales, R&D, etc.) all
working by the same strategy?
20. Do you have true competitive advantage in the market?