Your IT system needs a major overhaul, and hordes of consultants would love to fix it for you. How do you find one who’ll get the work done on time and on budget? Start by asking these questions.

1. What happens if I’m not satisfied at the end of the project? A mediocre IT consultant will start talking fast about money-back guarantees. A smart one

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Author: Jennifer Gill
Source: Smart Questions for Your Tech Consultant
Subject: IT Questions

Michael Michalko, author, Thinkertoys: A Handbook for Business Creativity, recommends a technique invented by Alex Osborn, a pioneer in understanding creativity, in which you accept that there really are no new ideas, only updates of existing ones. With that in mind, take the subject you want to think about and ask the questions below to generate ideas. SCAMPER is a mnemonic to remind you … [ Read more ]

Authors: David Lidsky, Michael Michalko
Source: Brain Calisthenics
Subject: Innovation Questions

Overall innovation strategy must answer three questions:

1. Where to Innovate? Depending on their specific situation and ambitions companies must decide if they want to focus on new products for existing markets, on developing new markets, etc. Beyond this, they sometimes have to re-evaluate whether to change their position in the value chain through backwards integration, forward integration, etc. And if the current market position

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Authors: Per I. Nilsson, Thorsten Gerhard
Source: Innovation at Work: The Innovation Imperative
Subject: Innovation Questions

Can the technologies you’re considering pass this test suggested by innovation-diffusion theorist Everett Rogers?

• Relative advantage: Is the innovation better than the status quo? Better than competing alternatives? Is it compelling enough to get users to switch, given the expectations about how others will behave?
• Compatibility: How well does the innovation complement other products your users have? Is it interoperable?
• Simplicity: How simple is it to explain

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Author: Bhaskar Chakravorti
Source: The Circuitous Path to an IT Payoff
Subject: Innovation Questions

Searching for opportunities is an almost impossible task in the absence of clear guidelines for where to look and what to look for. The innovation process must therefore start with an attempt to create a vision of the company’s preferred areas of growth. The vision should be as concrete as possible. It should lead to an explicit set of strategic priorities and a broad map … [ Read more ]

Author: Jean-Philippe Deschamps
Source: Managing Innovation: From Serendipity to Process
Subject: Innovation Questions

Motorola has developed a broad-based approach to identify, resolve and elevate employee issues. In what is called the Individual Dignity Entitlement Program, employees are asked to answer the following questions every quarter and review them with their supervisors:

1. Do you have a substantive, meaningful job that contributes to the success of Motorola?
2. Do you know the on-the-job behaviors and have the knowledge base to be

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Authors: Albert J. Viscio, Bruce A. Pasternack, Shelley S. Keller
Source: The Triumph of People Power and the New Economy
Subject: Human Resources Questions

1. Does your desire to make things work better occupy as much of your time as fulfilling your duty to maintain them the way they are?
2. Do you get excited about what you are doing at work?
3. Do you think about new business ideas while driving to work or taking a shower?
4. Can you visualize concrete steps for action when you consider ways to make a new

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Author: Carol Orsag Madigan
Source: Agents of Innovation
Subjects: Entrepreneurship Questions, Personal and Career Development

Looking for office space? Make sure you’re getting the best deal by asking the right questions.

• What’s my base year? If you sign a full-service lease, the landlord factors your portion of the building’s annual operating expenses–utilities, janitorial services, maintenance–into the rent. After your first, or base, year, he’s entitled to “pass through” any increases incurred in operating the building. That may come in the

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Author: Jennifer Gill
Source: Smart Questions for Your Landlord
Subject: Finance Questions

If you answer no to any of the following questions, your company’s incentive plan may be in need of a tuneup or a complete overhaul.

• Do line managers support the plan and use it to manage and guide employees?
• Does everyone on the executive team understand and agree on what the plan is designed to accomplish?
• Is the plan rewarding the right behaviors?
• Do employees understand what the

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Author: Joanne Sammer
Source: The Incentive Comp Quandary
Subject: Human Resources Questions

Which activity-based costing/management (ABC/M) software you choose depends on characteristics of your business; one solution isn’t right for every organization. Use the following questions to find the product that will work best for your company.

1. Does the software offer multi-dimensional analysis — in other words, can it separate out costs by customer, product, geographical region and business channel?
2. Can you use it to extract information

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Author: Tad Leahy
Source: Comparison Shopping for ABC/M Software
Subject: Finance Questions