1. My supervisor keeps my interests in mind when making decisions?
2. I would be willing to let my supervisor have complete control over my future in this company.
3. If my supervisor asked why a problem occurred, I would speak freely even if I were partly to blame.
4. I feel comfortable being creative because my supervisor understands that sometimes creative solutions do not work.
5. It is important for me to have a good way to keep an eye on my supervisor
6. Increasing my vulnerability to criticism by my supervisor would be a mistake.
7. If I had my way, I wouldn’t let my supervisor have any influence over decisions that are important to me.

• Do we have a thorough understanding of our customers’ purchasing patterns and psychology, and of the drivers of decision making in our category?
• Have we embedded pricing discussions into the innovation and new-product launch process so that any opportunities to bundle or unbundle products, create all-in-one systems, or develop add-on products are identified early on?
• Do we have a clear view of how pricing may be used to reflect the economic cost of unused capacity – or to manage around capacity constraints?
• Is our customer relationship management (CRM) system sufficiently robust to allow for tracking, contacting and upselling to customers over time?
• How strong are our steering mechanisms for managing the sales force so that it can execute more nuanced, multistep pricing strategies?
• Do we have tools in place to measure our customers’ lifetime value and repurchase rates?
• Do we know where our price leaks are? Can we pinpoint the biggest factors (such as trade spending, discounts, upgrades, and commissions) driving the difference between list price and net realized price, so that we know where to focus price changes first for the greatest impact on margin?

Source: Just-in-Time Pricing by Gus Antorcha, Just Schürmann

• What are the social and ecological costs generated by our current business model?
• Who bears these costs and what are the likely consequences? How sustainable is our current business model?
• How structurally robust is the level of trust that we inspire in our employees, customers, suppliers, and regulators?
• To what degree are our company’s social contributions integrated into our core business mission and purpose?
• Where are the opportunities to renew critical resources or goodwill, to profitably meet the social expectations of our customers, and to address new social markets?
• What obstacles are impeding these opportunities and what traps could we fall into?
• Where can our company shape the industry ecosystem and gain social—and business—advantage?

Source: Social Advantage by Martin Reeves, Dieter Heuskel, Tom Lewis | Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

1. What can I do to make you more effective?
2. What’s keeping you from falling asleep at night?
3. What one thing should I do more? (or one thing I should do less?)
4. What roadblocks are holding you back? (or preventing your projects from moving ahead?)
5. What’s the most important issue you are dealing with right now?
6. What do our competitors do better than us?
7. If you were in my job, what’s the first thing you would you do?
8. What do we do better than anyone else?
9. How can I improve your team’s productivity?
10. What are the two key behaviors of our leadership team?
11. What one thing can we do to make our weekly meeting more effective?
12. What are your top three goals for next month?
13. What’s waking you up at 3:00 in the morning?
14. When you think about our goals, what are we forgetting?
15. If I could do just one thing for you as a result of this discussion, what would it be?

Source: 15 Great Leadership Questions by John McKee | TechRepublic

• What information are we collecting?
• Where and how are we collecting it?
• Who owns it?
• Who has access to it?
• What are we doing with it?
• What would be the impact to the organization if it got into the wrong hands?
• What controls are in place?
• Are efforts to safeguard the information commensurate with its worth?
• Are we gathering unnecessary information that represents potential risk without opportunity for reward?
• Are we maximizing the value of what we collect?
• Could information have more value if we loosened restrictions on it?

Source: Lock It Up or Set It Free? by Ted DeZabala | Deloitte Review, Issue 6

• What compromises does our current business model force customers to make?
• Why are nonusers or defectors dissatisfied with our offering?
• Do we offer customers a better value proposition than that of the competition?
• What alternative models are gaining share at the edges of our industry?
• If we were an industry outsider, what would we do to take advantage of the gaps or weaknesses in our business model?
• Do we have a plan for identifying potential business models, implementing them, and embedding BMI capabilities within the organization?
• What do we need to change in our organization and operations to implement a new business model?
• What information would we need to make a commitment to a new business model?
• How urgent is the perceived need for change in our organization?
• How should our ideas be championed?

Source: Business Model Innovation: When the Game Gets Tough, Change the Game by Zhenya Lindgardt, Martin Reeves, George Stalk, and Michael S. Deimler | Boston Consulting Group (BCG), December 2009

• How will information technology increase transparency in the industry?
• How will transparency impact consumer behaviors, retailer strategies and producer strategies?
• How can we capture value and mitigate the challenges of transparency in terms of price, reputation and other drivers of purchase behaviors?
• How should we react to empowered stakeholders — from consumers to third parties like environmental lobbies — who can impact the reputation of the firm?

Source: The View from the Glass House by Ajit Kambil, Patrick Conroy and Ryan Alvanos | Deloitte Review, Winter 2008

Source: Questions to Ask When Leading Change to Get More Engagement by Melissa Dutmers | Riverfork Consulting

1. We make it easy for prospective customers to find us and understand our products and services.
2. We have the capability to offer expertise, tools, and other assistance to help customers determine their criteria for a good solution and which solutions best fit their situation.
3. We offer various approaches for customers to acquire our products and services, such as different payment options, leasing, financing, etc.
4. We can and do help customers with logistics and other issues related to receiving our products and services.
5. We provide flexible options for support and assistance to customers in installing, implementing and using our products and services.
6. We have a range of options available to help customers recycle, reuse, reduce waste, upgrade, and dispose of our products at the end of a product’s useful life.

If you answered yes to all six questions, congratulations on meeting the criteria for creating a differentiated offering for your customers. You may, however, want to ask yourself whether all your salespeople are consciously applying a lifecycle strategy and are maximizing the potential for every customer.

Source: Is Your Sales Team Creating Real Differentiation? by Tom Roth | MarketingProfs.com

• What leadership competencies/attributes are required to drive our business strategy and lead the evolution of the culture? How robust is our existing leadership pipeline, and where are there risks?
• What are the pivotal job families/roles most critical to executing our business strategy? How will we differentiate talent strategies/investments accordingly?
• What are the implications for skill development, given our business strategy?
• What are our existing/emerging talent requirements in the various markets we serve, and how will we attract/deploy the right talent to these markets?
• How can we optimize investments in talent and reward programs to achieve the right performance outcomes and evolve the culture?
• Does the talent function have the right structure, capabilities and people to deliver value to the organization at the right cost?

Source: A Tipping Point for Talent Management? | Towers Perrin