Here are frequently asked questions that fall into the following categories:
1. Strategy Management
2. Leadership
3. Scoring
4. Application
1. Strategy Management
* Who cares about strategy management?
- The CEO and Board care about strategy
management—managing strategy for results.
* Who owns the strategy management process?
- The CFO owns the strategy management process in a large company (or the COO).
- In a small company, it is owned by the CEO.
* Why use a strategy management application?
- Our strategy management applications provide a standard method for strategy assessment, evaluation, adjustment and communication.
- The strategy management method and process fits naturally into the existing Tagetik 3.0 performance management application’s structure and functionality for enterprise clients.
- The VECKER SX application provides the method,
structure and process of strategy management to
small-to-medium sized businesses.
* What our clients say about our strategy management application:
- It is a single version of company performance
for both the team and the board.
- It integrates the performance of the five key
elements of strategy management.
- It identifies the strengths and weaknesses in
the execution of strategy.
- It is the information every CEO and Board
Member should know about their business.
2. Leadership
* How do you evaluate a CEO or senior leader?
We have what we call a "CEO Test". It is pass/fail--single elimination and it goes like this:
1. Ethics
2. Leadership
3. Performance.
To this we add a few more components to get the full picture of the individual for evaluation:
4. Fit
5. Judgment
6. Potential.
(For non-CEOs the evaluation components are: Fit, Performance, Judgement and Potential--you'll see that in our Strategy Management application--VECKER SX.)
The Fit component for a CEO has three key pieces: Market, Skill and Experience. Market fit and experience fit are fairly self-explanatory, For skill we look at one thing that may not be obvious--phase of the business.
We break phase of business into three phases:
1. Development
2. Expansion
3. Wealth creation.
The development phase is the true entrepreneurial period: from idea conception to developing a commercial business out of the idea. The expansion phase is where you take that early business (customers and revenue) and scale it in both reach and depth. The final phase is the wealth creation phase where the business exits into the capital markets (either public or private) creating real wealth for the owners (as opposed to paper wealth!)
3. Scoring
* How do you decide to score something ‘0’ or ‘+1’?
Let’s break this into two pieces: scoring progress and scoring results.
Scoring progress -- When scoring progress, we score ‘0’ if things are progressing as planned, and ‘+1’ if things are progressing ahead of plan.
Scoring results -- When scoring results or Actuals, we score ‘0’ if things turned out “OK”, and ‘+1’ if they turned out well. For numbers, we score ‘0’ if you got close, and ‘+1’ if you made or exceeded plan.
You score ‘-1’ for both progress and results scoring when you are behind in progress or you missed the plan.
You have flexibility to judge progress and performance as you see fit. Again, here are our top-level guidelines:
+1, indicating goals met, or good performance
0, indicating goals almost met, or somewhat satisfactory performance
-1, indicating goals not met, or poor performance
* Can Risks be scored ‘+1’ or are they always scored ‘0’ or ‘-1’?
We recommend scoring Risks either ‘0’ or ‘-1’. In this context they are risks to your business and so are either moderate risks ‘0’, or severe risks ‘-1’. Even though we have yet to find a “good” risk to the business, that doesn’t mean our users won’t find one!
* Why limit scoring to the major headings?
We summarize scoring to the major headings because most people can only hold 7 to 9 things in their mind at one time. So we summarize detailed scoring to the major headings for comprehension. (That’s the reason many have trouble remembering US telephone numbers--they are 10 digits long!)
4. Application
* Why only nine elements of data for ‘The Numbers’?
We limit the top level numbers to nine elements strictly for comprehension. When you add the complexity of a Plan, Outlook and Actual for each of the nine elements, you’ve generally reached the limit of most people’s ability to keep things straight! (Certainly ours!)
* What is the difference among a Plan, Outlook and Actual?
Think of it like the weather: the Plan is to have good weather this weekend, the Outlook is for clouds on Saturday but generally nice, and the Actual will be the weather you experience!
* Why are Goals, The Numbers and Risks used for the Basic Implementation?
It is critical that you stay headed in the right direction (Goals), you are getting the results you expect (The Numbers), and you keep an eye on the threats to your success (Risks). We believe this is the most important evaluation of your business you can make--a basic evaluation. You add depth and breadth to the evaluation by adding Operations, People and VECKER Score.
* Do you have a recommended schedule for updating each of the elements?
We recommend updating Goals, The Numbers and Risks monthly, and Operations, People and VECKER Score quarterly. We believe that you gain the most benefit using this update schedule. Keep in mind that VECKER SX is designed to use based on your need. Use the elements that make sense to you and update them as you see fit.
* Why update Goals, The Numbers and Risks monthly?
Because things change rapidly, we believe you should evaluate these critical three elements monthly.
* Why update Operations, People and VECKER Score quarterly?
Let’s take them separately.
Operations -- Operations is about evaluating the functions and processes of your business, the way it operates. Under most circumstances, evaluating this every three months is adequate.
People -- People is about evaluating the people involved in your business: employees, partners, suppliers, and advisors. We believe you need three months of time and data to properly evaluate these groups.
* Where did my data go?
Make sure you have selected the correct quarter to view, e.g. Q1-2009. You can do this in most screens, but it is best to do it on the ‘Home’ screen at the start of your session. This trips us up at the end of one quarter and the beginning of the next, when you are constantly looking forward and back!
* How do I set The Numbers for millions or thousands?
Go to your ‘home’ page and click on ‘settings’ in the upper right-hand corner. Once in the ‘settings’ page you’ll see a setting for ‘DOLLARS IN’ and a drop-down box for millions or thousands.
* How do I set annual totals for the Product, Customer and Prospect elements in The Numbers?
Go to your ‘home’ page and click on ‘settings’ in the upper right-hand corner. Once in the ‘settings’ page you’ll see a setting for each and a drop-down box for ‘Ending Number’ or ‘Annual Total’. Ending Number is used for an ending number, such as total customers. Annual Total is used for a cumulative number, such as total leads generated.