Stage of Business Growth Assessment

• • Firmographic Information

    What is your organization’s primary industry?

    • Agriculture, Mining
    • Construction
    • Finance, Insurance, Real Estate
    • Government
    • Health Care
    • High-Tech
    • Manufacturing
    • Retail, Wholesale
    • Services
    • Transportation
    • Communications
    • Utilities
    • Nonprofit

  •  

    What best describes your position in the organization?

    • Owner/Partner
    • Corporate Management
    • General Manager
    • VP (EVP, SVP, VP)
    • Director/Manager
    • Staff/Support/Administration
    • Consultant
    • Other

• • Firmographic Information

    What is your company’s total annual sales?

    • Less than $5 million
    • $5 to $25 million
    • $26 to $100 million
    • $101 to $500 million
    • $501 million to $1 billion
    • More than $1 billion

  •  

    Please indicate the total number of employees.

    • 1-9
    • 10-49
    • 50-99
    • 100-499
    • 500-999
    • 1,000-4,999
    • 5,000-9,999
    • 10,000 or more
      

• Firmographic Information

  Company Name
  Name
  Email Address

• This questionnaire assesses the current stage of growth of an organization. Upon completion of the questionnaire, GrowthMine will instantly produce and present you with a customized online report that contains a written summary of your organization’s current stage of growth. The custom report is based on your responses to a series of 20 questions.

  For all the questions below, please select the option that best applies to your organization.

  ---

  1

  Which of the following best describes the current state of your organization?

  • aWe are slowly starting to grow and steadily adding new customers.
  • bWe are growing rapidly in sales, customers, and people.
  • cWe are following a strategic plan for locating new growth opportunities while our current business is still growing.
  • dWe are developing our initial product and finding our first group of customers.
  • eGrowth has stalled or started to decline.
• 2

  Which of the following best describes your organization’s orientation?

  • aProduct Orientation
  • bSales Orientation
  • cProfit Orientation
  • dSales and Profit Orientation
  • eReturn on Investment (ROI) Orientation
• 3

  What is the organization’s primary focus?

  • aWe are a new company and focused on survival.
  • bWe are fundamentally changing the way we manage and operate the business.
  • cWe want to keep things as they are to maintain our success.
  • dWe are expanding to new markets, developing new products, and creating new businesses.
  • eWe are perfecting our existing product or service, creating demand, and increasing sales revenues.
• 4

  Who makes the most important decisions in the organization?

  • aThe leader and a small group of managers make most of the decisions.
  • bDecisions are made at the most appropriate level of the organization.
  • cIt’s not always clear how important decisions are made.
  • dThe company’s leader makes all decisions.
  • eThere is a highly structured decision-making process that typically involves several levels of approvals.
• 5

  Which of the following best describes the structure of the organization?

  • aWe don’t have formal job descriptions and we all do whatever it takes to get the job done.
  • bWe have an organizational chart that changes frequently and we have some job descriptions, but they don’t really reflect how things get done.
  • cWe have a complex organization and it would be hard to change because we have operated this way for so long.
  • dWe don’t always have the right people in the right positions.
  • eWe have the right people in the right positions and make changes as needed.
• 6

  Which of the following best describes the organization’s hiring process?

  • aThe organization is hiring a lot of new people and we are making too many hiring mistakes.
  • bMost often managers drive the process, but the leader of the company is often involved in some interviewing and the final hiring decision.
  • cHR takes care of most of the process with little involvement of the managers until the final interview.
  • dThe head of the company makes all of the hiring decisions.
  • eManagers are responsible for hiring and HR assists throughout the process.
• 7

  Which of the following best describes the atmosphere inside the organization?

  • aPeople are excited by the challenge of trying to make a young company successful and are willing to do whatever it takes to get things done.
  • bRelationships between departments, employees, and managers are very strong and there is a high degree of commitment to the organization.
  • cWe are selling and getting new customers, so everything is going well.
  • dThere is tension between some departments and individuals.
  • eMost people just try to make it through the day and no one wants to "rock the boat."
• 8

  How well does the organization coordinate activities?

  • aThings are happening so fast that people don’t always know who is responsible for what.
  • bWe are small group, which makes activities easy to coordinate.
  • cEven though we are a big company, all activities are well coordinated across the entire organization.
  • dSales activities are coordinated, but other things often fall through the cracks.
  • eParts of the organization often operate independently with different goals and performance criteria.
• 9

  How effective are the systems in the organization?

  • aMost systems and processes no longer work as well as they did when the company was smaller.
  • bWe have effective systems and processes in place that allow us to remain flexible and well managed at the same time.
  • cMost of the systems and processes that we have in place are sales or customer service related.
  • dWe are so small that we need very few systems or processes.
  • eThere are so many formal systems and processes in place that it has become almost impossible to get things done.
• 10

  Which of the following best describes the corporate culture?

  • aOur culture supports our goals, is well understood by everyone in the organization, and our management team “walks the talk.”
  • bOur culture is very sales focused and we do whatever is necessary to make sure our customers are happy, which often leads to other areas of the company being neglected.
  • cOur culture comes from our leader and everyone does whatever is necessary for the company to survive.
  • dOur actual culture is very different from what we say it is, and senior managers don’t seem to support our stated values.
  • eOur culture is different now because we have so many new people and things are changing so fast.
• 11

  How well does the organization set and achieve goals?

  • aWhen setting goals, we involve people at all levels of the organization, and we consistently meet or exceed our goals.
  • bWe have a very structured and lengthy planning process where detailed budgets are created and goals are set, but we rarely achieve our goals.
  • cWe don’t set formal goals because we need to remain very flexible.
  • dOur goals are primarily sales related, and we are good at making sales goals.
  • eWe don’t plan like we should or always make our goals like we used to.
• 12

  Which of the following best describes how performance is managed in the organization?

  • aWe have reached the point where we must identify and fix performance problems much earlier than we have in the past.
  • bWe have a very structured performance appraisal process that HR closely monitors to make sure that mangers get performance reviews done on time.
  • cWe are most concerned with people hitting their sales goals and customer service; we don’t really manage many other aspects of performance.
  • dThe company leader sees everyone’s performance and knows exactly how each person is doing.
  • eOur performance management process monitors individual, team, department, and organizational performance.
• 13

  Who are employees most loyal to?

  • aThe head of our company.
  • bWe are team oriented, so our loyalty is with each other.
  • cThe good of the company is more important than any loyalty to individual managers or departments.
  • dNo one seems to care about anything but his or her individual self-interests.
  • eOur chief concern is taking care of our customers.
• 14

  How strong is employee retention?

  • aWe have a small team that was hired by the leader of the company and if someone leaves, it is a big surprise.
  • bTurnover is a normal part of our business and we are accustomed to dealing with it without too much disruption of our daily operations.
  • cWe have very little turnover because of poor performance, when people do leave it is usually voluntary.
  • dMost of the people who leave, voluntarily or involuntarily, are not hitting their sales goals or don’t like the fast pace.
  • eTurnover has recently begun to increase across all areas of the organization.
• 15

  Which of the following best describes the use of rules and policies within the organization?

  • aWe have very few rules or policies.
  • bWe have rules and policies in place, but they are often not followed or enforced.
  • cThere are rules and policies in some areas, but not others.
  • dThere are so many rules and policies that it makes it hard to get anything done.
  • eWe have rules and policies that everyone understands and are applied consistently throughout the organization.
• 16

  Which of the following best describes how well people are held accountable for results?

  • aWe have a very detailed performance management process, but we don’t really hold everyone accountable.
  • bThere is a high degree of accountability in the organization.
  • cThe leader is aware of everyone’s performance and personally holds people accountable.
  • dAs we have gotten bigger, it has become much more difficult to hold people accountable.
  • eWe hold people accountable for achieving sales numbers and meeting customer expectations, but there isn’t much accountability in other areas.
• 17

  How effective is communication in the organization?

  • aWe don’t have time for meetings because we are busy selling and working with customers.
  • bInformation flows freely across the entire organization.
  • cWe are growing so fast and have so many new employees that people are often not aware of what is going on in other parts of the company.
  • dCommunication is pretty informal because everybody knows everybody.
  • eWe have formal communication channels that information must go through, which often delay the spread of critical information.
• 18

  How well does the organization execute its decisions?

  • aBecause we are small and don’t have a lot of people, everyone does whatever it takes to get things done.
  • bIf it’s a decision that affects sales or our customers it gets done quickly, but we don’t always take action on other types of decisions.
  • cDecisions are made by people who do not understand what it will take to execute them; this makes it almost impossible to get anything done.
  • dThings are beginning to fall through the cracks because it’s not always clear who is responsible for what.
  • eBecause we involve the people that are actually responsible for execution in the decision process, we are very good at implementing decisions and making adjustments when we don’t get the results we expected.
• 19

  What types of results does the company emphasize?

  • aOur major goal is getting the business started and surviving.
  • bEverything we do is focused on sales and customer service.
  • cThere is a balance between individual, departmental, and organizational goals.
  • dOur rigid focus on financial results has taken much of the flexibility and creativity out of the organization.
  • eWe are growing so rapidly that it has become very difficult to know what should be measured or even how to do it.
• 20

  How effective are mangers at delegating?

  • aThere is no need for delegation because the company is small and the leader makes all the decisions.
  • bMost of our managers are doers and even though some things are delegated, it is not critical to our success.
  • cOur managers are very effective delegators and delegation is critical to our success.
  • dOur managers still try to do everything themselves, but we have grown so much that our decision-making process has slowed and bottlenecks are being created.
  • eOur managers delegate everything to the point that they don’t know what is going on in their departments.