And it’s the easiest stress test there is.
Three simple questions I ask every time I engage with a company and start hearing about its business ambitions.
Five minutes.
No auditor or consultant required.
Asking those questions, and listening to the answers, always provides valuable insight into the resilience of the company.
1- What happens if a key employee leaves?
First: what is a key employee? It can be someone who performs a job nobody else can. It can be someone whose skills cannot be replaced easily. It could be someone who seems indispensable at the job.
A common example: it can be a sales director, indispensable for every big deal, sole interface to the client’s executive level, and who has a history of “everything in my head, nothing in the CRM.”
2- What happens if a key client leaves?
One of your key accounts, in your portfolio for the past 5 years, has clearly stated they will go for another vendor. Too bad, you’ve already budgeted their renewal in your books.
Reasons for leaving can be numerous:
You failed to establish a real connection with the decision makers, sticking within a supplier-client relationship. You failed to highlight the value you deliver, which should be in line with your client’s business agenda. This sums up as: your competitor did better.
Other angles could be linked to the fact that the client can find alternatives to your portfolio of products and services, sometimes cheaper, that deliver the same outcome.
3- How do you onboard a new employee?
Onboarding programs are designed to integrate new employees, help them shorten their learning curve. Thus helping them deliver the best from the potential you spotted during the interviews, rather than constantly chasing for information long acquired by established employees.
The way you onboard new colleagues tells a lot about your company culture and about the chances you provide to new talent to help your company face the challenges ahead.
None of this requires a complex employee survey followed by a heavy transformation program. It simply requires an honest answer to three questions.
Which one is the one you’d rather not answer out loud?
And most important:
-> What’s the plan to prevent these events?
-> What’s the plan once it’s happened?
👉 Will you make these questions a standard in every management meeting?
