How Do You Know if Your Business Might Be in Trouble?

Is your business on the edge of being disrupted? Many of our great businesses are at risk because they are unable to keep up with more agile competitors. Today, we talk about how to know if your business could be in trouble. You probably know the answers to most of these questions.

The question is; how far into your organization can others answer them and have the same clarity you do? In over 20 years of consulting and coaching, I have discovered that many of my executive clients can answer these questions, but go down one level in their organization and their key people struggle to provide answers.

In the past, market leaders could be run from the top of the organization without engaging everyone in the organization. Today, with the rate of change increasing, it is critical to instill ownership up and down your organization. We must reengage your employees if we hope to thrive in today’s changing business environment.

Here are several questions that you might want to share with your team. To maximize the impact of this exercise, consider having the leaders on your teams review them with their direct reports.  I think you might find the results eye opening.

1. Do you see growth in your industry?

2. Is your organization positioned well to take advantage of new opportunities? Do you have legacy investments that preclude you seizing new market opportunities?

3. How profitable is your business?

4. Where will your new competition in your market come from?

5. Is your business based on a sustainable business model?

6. Are your products and services at risk of being commoditized?

7. How does your business stand compared to your competitors? Does your business have higher sales or margins than most of your competitors? Are these critical success factors in the top 5% of your industry?

8. How do your products and services look from your customer’s perspective? Who might you talk with outside your organization than can provide you with honest feedback?

9. What role does technology play in your future product and service offerings?

10. How does your talent compare to competitors in your markets? Are you still able to attract high caliber talent in key performance areas within your organization? Have you had any key employees leave in the past 6 months?

When you consider all these factors, how would you rank your chances moving forward? What can you do to increase your odds? Are you ready to begin taking action to help build a sustainable business model? Tomorrow, we talk about how you can better understand your value proposition and how to improve your growth and bottom line. See you Friday.