The Diagnostic Process

"The evidence was overwhelming, we could not ignore it and no one wanted to. Their work resulted in a profit growth of more than 10% of revenues. "

CEO, Insurance Company

The greatest barrier to corporate change, to significant improvement in growth, profits and performance, is the real difficulty companies have in seeing themselves as they actually are. Individuals see bits and pieces, mostly the overt measures, but nobody sees the whole thing. The truly important aspects of the company, its inner life, the real drivers, predictors, causes of success and failure, remain hidden or unacknowledged.

The health, potency and potential of a company are defined by many factors other than its financial condition, growth and other usual measures. These might be analogous to blood pressure and pulse. They are easily measurable; they are always reviewed.

However, for long-term viability and success, the current value of these characteristics may have little significance. The much less tangible attributes like assertiveness, leadership, executive will, entrepreneurship and morale - in short the inner life - can be more important. Measuring them requires a much greater degree of skill and experience.

From our work with scores of organizations, we created a process through which a company can see and acknowledge what it really is and change it. This process begins with complete Diagnostic Appraisal of the company, including its drives, attitudes and behaviors and the human motivations that are the real source of all corporate success.

Central to this diagnosis are management's responses to our unique instruments. These elicit the observations and insights of managers, supervisors and senior staff. They measure more than 50 Early (objectively measurable) Warning Signs and more than 100 Leading Performance Drivers governing corporate performance and success. They are the most comprehensive such instruments available today.
See also The Corporate Pulse.

Essentially, they provide a 360 degree appraisal of the company, from within, through the eyes of its senior people; those people who really understand and are responsible for the current situation and who will have to create, drive and implement the goals of the company.

The diagnostic instruments alone provide many benefits to the CEO and senior managers, before the renewal program is even underway. Many clients in fact get sufficient benefits here that the process need to be done. Some of these benefits and testimonials are shown at
[BENEFITS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE]

The instruments are available on paper, on disk and through the internet. The full version takes about an hour to respond to on paper. The "Probable Cause" instrument, used for preliminary diagnosis (for management teams - available on disk only) takes about ten minutes.

Complementary short-form diagnostic questionnaires are available at The Corporate Pulse.

For full descriptions on their use, see our Publicationspages.

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The diagnosis is made, not by a computer program, but by at least two of our senior management engineers who have had experience in almost every area of industry and commerce and who have performed almost every conceivable consulting assignment: from systems design to reengineering, from turnaround to O.D., from finance to sales training, from TQM to corporate coaching. This diagnosis is made in conjunction with the CEO.