The range, significance, and complexity of the business decisions CEOs face during any given day can be overwhelming. Vistage Research recently received more than 1,000 responses from Vistage members to the question, “What are the major decisions you will be making about your business in 2017?” Our analysis of the verbatim responses identified four primary categories of business decisions and a secondary fifth category, leadership.
In order of frequency, the four primary categories were:
Hiring, developing and maintaining the people that do the work
How the company engages and connects with its customers
The financial organization and the financial performance of the company
The operational and technical infrastructure that supports the business
Segmenting business decisions into four clearly defined categories allows us to create and connect topics and sub-topics and develop a common language for research and discussion. This also allows us to create a taxonomy for organizing and curating research, data and expert perspectives on the issues and topics our members identify as most important. While every business is different, all businesses, regardless of size, industry or ownership, are faced with critical decisions in each category. Top priorities vary over time, but frequent analysis and review of each category will promote business optimization and the uplift in performance that follows.
