By Zuhair Suidan

Few would question the importance of having executives within a firm share a common vision, agree on the firm’s top objectives, and then the major strategies and plans to make those objectives real. Most realize that the leverage executives yield through the resources they control is severely diminished if they are driving in different directions than their peers on the executive team.

The alarming reality is that if you ask each member of the executive team, individually, a series of questions which are core to the business strategy, and then compare the answers, in far too many cases you’d find major deviations, disagreements, and at times positions in direct conflict with one another.

As an example, when posing the question ‘What is your vision for the business in 5 years’ to a senior executive team, you might get the following range of answers:

• “To outpace industry growth”
• “To achieve 40% gross margin”
• “To be a highly desired place to work”
• “I have no idea”
• “Hmmm. Good question…”
• “Isn’t that what we’re hiring you for?”

In all too may cases, you get a similar wide variance in answers for a list of other core questions that executives should be discussing thoroughly and reaching agreement on.

Here are questions that I like to have executive teams agree on the answers to

1. Define the business you are in -
• What customer groups you target now?
  
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• What customer needs you satisfy now?
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• What solution types do you offer now?
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
2. What is your vision for the business in 5 years?
   
   ______________________________________________
   
   ______________________________________________
   
3. What are the top 3 forces / trends / environmental factors affecting your business?
   
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
4. What is the size of your market and what is its annual growth rate?
   
   ______________________________________________
   
   
5. What is your annual revenue and revenue growth rate?
   
   ______________________________________________
   
   
6. What are your 3 main strengths?
   
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
7. What are your 3 major weaknesses?
   
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
8. What are your top 3 opportunities?
   
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
9. What are your 3 major threats?
   
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
   • ______________________________________________
     
10. What are the top 3 segments in your market in priority sequence?
    
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
11. What are your primary business objectives?
• Current year:
  
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• Current year + 1:
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• Current year + 2:
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
12. Who are your top 3 competitors?
    
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
13. How are you positioned versus your top competitors in the market place today?
    
    ______________________________________________
    
    ______________________________________________
    
14. How do you plan to be positioned in the market place in 3 years?
    
    ______________________________________________
    
    ______________________________________________
    
15. What are your top 3 market strategies?
    
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
16. Looking to the future -
• What new customer groups you will be targeting in 2 to 3 years?
  
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• What additional customer needs you will be satisfying in 2 to 3 years?
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• What new solution types you will be offering in 2 to 3 years?
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
17. What are your 3 main marketing programs?
    
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
18. What are your top 3 critical success factors?
    
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
    • ______________________________________________
      
19. What are your top 3 risks and your corresponding contingency plans?
• Top risk and our corresponding contingency plan:
  
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• Second risk and our corresponding contingency plan:
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  
• Third risk and corresponding contingency plan:
  ______________________________________________
  
  ______________________________________________
  

You may have - actually you should have - noticed that many of the items on this list of questions are limited to 3, e.g., what are the top 3 forces / trends / environmental factors affecting your business, the 3 top strengths, the 3 top opportunities, the 3 top objectives, the top 3 risks and corresponding contingency plans… Why the top 3? Three (you guessed it) primary reasons:

1. It’s 90% of the answer. The top three responses in any one area most likely represent 90% of what needs to be covered in it. The key issue is getting the correct top 3. It is in fact far easier to come up with long laundry lists of 15 or 20 factors in any one area, than with the top 3.
2. It provides focus and eliminates ‘noise’. If you ask 5 executives to respond to the above questions individually, their opinions can range from perfect alignment to absolute misalignment. Perfect alignment would represent all 5 executives identifying the same 3 factors in the same order. Absolute misalignment would be reflected in 3 different answers being given by each executive. Most executive teams fall somewhere in the middle. After each identifies the top 3 factors, a healthy discussion can result in agreement on the top 3, 4 or 5 factors. That is fine. This process provides focus on what matters and exposes the lesser importance of the other items on the laundry list.
3. It promotes coordinated action. The most important benefit of doing this analysis is to discuss issues in the open and gain executive agreement. Following a disciplined process to reach agreement on the top factors takes you a long way towards having a converged vision and a strategy to make it real, thus laying the groundwork for synchronized, coordinated action.