Discussion guide for CEO’s and executive teams for identifying the strategic growth opportunities (Best suitable for emerging companies)
Here are some ‘thought provoking’ questions that can serve as discussion topics for your executive meetings. You can pick each topic that is most relevant to your business situation and have an open dialogue with your executive teams.
Self-Diagnosis (Current state and SWOT analysis): Do I Need to Realign?
Most businesses are familiar with the SWOT analysis tool. It’s a quick and simple way of revealing and clarifying your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and so on. What many teams fail to do, however, is take the next step. What do we do about our situation? Next time you find yourself completing a SWOT analysis, include the activation plan -
Leveraging the strengths – Set some actions with the target dates.
Build against our weaknesses - Set some actions with the target dates
Capitalize on Opportunities – Set some actions with the target dates
Defend against your threats- Set some actions with the target dates
Service/Product, Market Alignment
What is the market need and how do we know our products/services are meeting those?
Is our product/service portfolio too spread, too thin with no depth? Shall we optimize and if so which ones and why?
Why are our customers choosing us for business? Write top 3 reasons and discuss?
Why do we lose business to competitors?
Who are our most profitable customers? What do they have in common? Are we taking any business we shouldn’t?
Competitive differentiation
What are we best at doing? Are we recognized for it?
How do we differ from top three competitors in delivering our products/services? Are we recognized for it?
Go to market /Distribution
What is the next priority segment, product/service or channel of distribution and why?
How has the B2B buying process changed and how do we align and Optimize our sales and marketing efforts across channels?
Are we doing enough on buyer enablement? What channels and plays would be right for us?
What new channels have we not yet deployed? Why? Do we need to make changes to the existing conditions before we consider?
When deciding levels of marketing investment, shall we focus on the revenue and EBITDA we receive from marketing, or are you more focused on a percentage of revenue as a benchmark target?
Strategic partnerships
What potential business partnerships, industry alliances should we be planning for? What is the purpose (market expansion, portfolio expansion) and on what basis to select a partner? What is the mutual benefit?
What businesses (like ours or in adjacent industries) should we consider for acquisition? If a competitor were to acquire, what scenario would be devastating?
What does it take to consider collaborating with trusted advisors/product agonistic consulting companies?
If you and your executive teams have had this discussion and gone through the process, share your comments. We welcome your inputs to refine the content and benefit similar companies.