Organization Profile & Dynamics Analysis©

The Managing-Leading Edge/Lawrimore Communications offers this free Organization Profile & Dynamics Analysis for 2 purposes:

1) To allow you to explore for free the important first steps in developing a strategic plan or improvement program.

2) To enable us to help you in the most cost-effective manner to develop the most useful recommendations or plan for your organization. 

Marked (*) fields are required if you want us to help you. If no information is relevant, type "None." 
Each field can hold a lot of text, so add as much as you need. All information will be kept totally confidential for use by you and Lawrimore/MLEdge's professional staff.  It will never be sold or disclosed to others.

These questions have been developed and refined over many years to analyze the most important dynamics of any company or organization situation thoroughly and effectively.  Because these questions are somewhat challenging, it may take you 2-3 hours to answer them adequately. We highly recommend printing this form and sharing the answering process with other people on the management or departmental team so everyone involved has input. 

No answer should be longer than 1 page -- more typically 1/4 to 1/2 page. If you would like our staff to respond to your information, please answer each question to the best of your ability and click the Submit button at the end. There is no charge for your use or our review of this information, and any subsequent services conducted for you can be chosen later, without obligation.

Organization Profile
[FrontPage Save Results Component]
Your First Name*
Last Name*
Title/Position*
Organization*
Street Address*
Address (2nd line)
City*
State/Province (abbrev.)*
Zip/Postal Code*
Country*
 Area Code + Work Phone*
Area Code + Fax
E-mail (will be your 
User Name on this site)*

 Select a Password (to access this information in the future)*

Re-enter Password*
 Your or Company Website/URL
Name of CEO if not you
Title of person you report to
Years you've been working
Previous work roles
Any other helpful info about you
Type of business or organization*

Primary products/services*
Primary expertise (what your organization or firm does best)*
Year founded*
Number of employees*
Annual revenues*
Number of branches/locations
Geographic area served*
Other information about your organization which will help us better understand it. 


Dynamics Analysis©

PART A. VALUE DYNAMICS

1. INPUTS--List the products, services, people, information, supplies etc. which your organization
purchases or leases from the outside.  Do not include your own personnel, property or capital
equipment. Focus on those items which are used, modified, enhanced or added to, to create
value for your customers.


2. VALUE CREATION--Describe the primary steps or processes your people follow to add value to
the inputs and create additional value for customers. This is essentially the work you do, not the
products, which is another topic. Use major categories, not great detail.


3. PRODUCTS--List the primary products or services which your organization provides--its outputs, the things customers or users pay for.


4. CUSTOMERS--Identify your main customer groups or categories.  If possible indicate the
characteristics of each group, so someone outside the company will know what you're talking about.
Also indicate the size of each group in terms of number of customers or annual sales, if known.


5. PROSPECTS--Identify any potential groups or categories which you would like to have as customers. If their characteristics are different from existing customers, explain how.  If their characteristics are the same, try to explain honestly why they are not your customers now. Add size of each group if known, or number of new customers you want to target for the next year or two. 


6. BENEFITS--Explain the benefits your products or services provide to customers. A benefit is the experience or gain customers receive from having or using your product or service. For example, it
may make their work easier, or save them money, or give them status, or cook food faster.  Do not
list features, which are characteristics of your product.


7. DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS-Describe how and where your product or service is distributed or
delivered to your customers. It may be your place of business, or you may have outlets all over the
world, or you may have a network of distributors who are not part of your company but distribute
your products for you, etc.

PART B. FORCE FIELD DYNAMICS

8. POSITIVE INTERNAL FACTORS-What are the company's strengths or advantages from an internal standpoint? Do not include anything outside the walls of the company.  Be specific, i.e., don't just say "our people" but explain why that is positive, if so.


9. NEGATIVE INTERNAL FACTORS-What are the company's internal weaknesses or things which
need to be improved? Do not include anything outside the walls of the company. Be specific. Explain
so someone outside the company can understand.


10. POSITIVE EXTERNAL FACTORS-What are the company's strengths, advantages or opportunities
in the external marketplace? Consider customers, prospects, competition, the industry, the operating
environment, technology, the global economy etc. Explain each.


11. NEGATIVE EXTERNAL FACTORS-What are the company's weaknesses, disadvantages or threats
in the external marketplace? Consider customers, prospects, competition, the industry, the operating
environment, technology, the global economy etc. Explain each.


12. COMPETITIVE POSITIONING-How does the company want to be perceived in the marketplace
versus your competitors? This has three components:

a) Identify your main competitors:

b) Explain your primary competitive advantage over them, something that is objectively true,
and not just "we have better people," please.

c) Describe your desired image, how you would like your company to be perceived in the marketplace, in a way that builds on this competitive advantage. Don't aim for clever phrases at this point, or "We're No. 1," but just try to be descriptive.

PART C.  IMPROVEMENT DYNAMICS

13. IMPROVEMENT HISTORY-List the steps or actions your company has taken in the last 3-5 years to improve its success in the marketplace. List in chronological order by year if possible, but don't worry if you can't remember. If you can't think of any improvement efforts, list changes imposed by the "outside world" which have impacted your company.


14. HIERARCHY OF PURPOSES-What are you trying to accomplish? List the various purposes,
starting with the company as a whole, working down to include your marketing objectives, then at
the bottom list the simplest, most basic thing you want to achieve in the near future. For every
purpose you list, ask yourself, "Why are we trying to do that?" This can help reveal other purposes
which are less obvious but still important.


15. DOMINANT COMPANY VALUES-What company values actually drive behavior day-to-day?
What is really important to the leaders of the company, that gets communicated to staff members
in terms of, "if you want to get ahead in this company, here's what you need to do"?


16. CRITICAL ISSUES-Based on the information you have provided above and related facts, identify
the issues which are critical to your success. An "issue" is something that is unresolved or undecided. If a critical issue goes one way you succeed, if it goes another way you do not succeed.

17. VISION ELEMENTS-Describe the ideal future for your company, the way you would like it to be
if your vision came true, 5-10 years from now. It is best for each participant on your team to write
down his or her own vision elements or "snapshots" before seeing or hearing others' ideas.  This way
the range of vision elements is richer and more authentic. The best way we have ever found to
stimulate personal visions is to have each participant actually close his eyes for 60 seconds to create a mental picture of the desired future state of the company. Then open eyes and take about 3-4 minutes to jot down notes of that mental picture--thus creating vision elements. After this personal process, then visions can be shared more productively. The sharing works best if you go around a table and let each person give just one element, then move on to the next person, and so on around and around until all elements are recorded.  If one person gives her whole vision at the beginning, it "steals the excitement" from other people's visions.


18. ROUGH GOALS-Identify some concrete, measurable goals which you would like your company
to achieve in the next 1-2 years, moving toward and consistent with the vision elements. Be very
specific and realistic. List things which people will likely commit to, not "dreams or visions" here.


19. NEXT STEPS-What are the next steps you would like to take in the next 1-6 months to move
you in the direction of your rough goals? Again be very specific.


20. EXPECTATIONS-What are your expectations in terms of assistance from Lawrimore Communications/MLEdge? How do you believe we can help you the most? This is your chance to describe the "benefits" you would like to receive from us.


Please review all your answers.  When you are satisfied with them, click the Submit button below
one time. This will send your information to Lawrimore Communications/MLEdge's professional staff. Our staff will review all your information, and will contact you promptly concerning options for further assistance. There will be no cost or obligation until you review those options and select one of them.