Diagnostic questionnaires

Identifying issues
(and learning how to fix them)

In order to fix a problem you first need to understand what the problem is. Use our selection of free diagnostic tools to identify areas in your personal and business life that might be preventing you from developing and improving.

We use cutting-edge tools and resources developed by the international business consultancy organisation, Mindshop, to help you achieve tangible and measurable business growth. These tools focus on measurable actions plans and results.

Here are just a few of the diagnostic tools that we can use to help you develop your business, just click the links below to try them out.

We’d love to have a chat with you about what the results might mean for you and the future direction of your business. Give us a call on 0208 238 8730 or click here to get in touch.

Business survival diagnostic

This Business survival diagnostic has been developed to provide a simple but powerful 25 question diagnostic that can assist in pin-pointing the key issues facing an organization seeking to survive difficult economic conditions. The 10 key factors it looks at are: Profit trend, Sales trend, Client Retention, Industry Growth Trend, Leadership, Continuous Improvement, Cash, Equity Position, Bank Relationship, Competitive Advantage.

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Change success model

The Change Success Model diagnostic has been designed to assist you deliver the change success model internally or with customers. The diagnostic allows you to work through the scoring for each of the 10 key success factors after which it will automatically calculate the relevant gaps. Those areas with the highest gaps provide an indication on the areas you should focus on first when seeking to improve the probability of change success. On the second worksheet tab there is also an overview of the change success factor descriptions.

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Decision matrix

The purpose of the Decision Matrix is to pass the decision making process through a selection filter and reduce the subjectivity in decision making. When decisions are made it is rare that the factors that influence your decision are weighted equally. The Decision Matrix also allows a group of people to identify, agree on, weight and importantly take ownership of, a set of factors that are seen by all as influencing that decision. This Excel tool gives you the ability to have up to 5 factors and 4 different decision options. Follow the instructions within the sheet for guidance on its usage.

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Family business diagnostic

Use this diagnostic to assess the 9 Succession Planning Factors of a family business – Maximize Business Value, Professionalizing the business, Effective Teams, Communication and conflict management, Documented family rules, Succession Planning, Leadership Development, Personal Retirement Planning, Contingency Planning.

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Gap analysis

The Gap Analysis tool allows you to determine the gap between where you are ‘Now’ and ‘Where’ you want to be on certain factors of a problem. The factors where the largest gaps appear are those to focus on.

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Growth and profit solutions business diagnostic

This is an excel based version of the Mindshop Growth and Profit Solutions (GPS) Business Diagnostic. This diagnostic allows businesses to pin-point key issues or opportunities in relation to aspects of their business. At the end of the diagnostic you will have clarity as to where to focus your strategies and actions over the months / year ahead. A great starting point for a strategic discussion.

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Investor readiness diagnostic

The Investor Readiness Diagnostic can be used to pin-point key issues for customers (or your own business) when seeking to become investment ready. The 10 factors that are looked at include: Sales, Dissatisfaction / Desire, Strategy, Leadership, Vision, Continuous Improvement, Product / Service, Market, Connections / Status, Profitability.

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Leadership

Use the Leadership diagnostic to identify key areas where you can improve your Leadership Skills or those of your team. Attached is a version for individual use or capturing multiple users inputs.

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Life balance diagnostic

Use this Life Balance diagnostic to review key elements of your own life or that of your team to pin-point key areas you can improve in. These include looking at factors such as: stress, time management, life barriers, belief systems, locus of control, life balance, energy, health, personal growth and family.

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Listening diagnostic

Surprisingly, most people think that they can listen – that’s because they have 2 ears and one mouth – it’s unfortunate however, that they don’t use them in that proportion! This Diagnostic is designed to help you identify your ability to listen and focus on those areas that might be stopping you from effectively communicating. Listening is the mark of a real leader. Listening is at the core of Emotional Intelligence. The one thing that people complain most about is that others don’t listen. Learning this skill is critical to success in life. This Diagnostic is designed to give you a clearer picture of the key areas which may be holding you back from being an effective listener. Once completed you are able to focus on the top 3 issues that have the greatest impact on you and your ability to communicate.

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People diagnostic

Use this People diagnostic to help pinpoint key issues or opportunities in relation to the people in your own business or that of a customer. Assess them against 10 people factors being: Teamwork, Communication, Morale, Training, Leadership, Dedication, Customer Focus, Coaching, Job Satisfaction, & Overall Effectiveness.

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Pricing strategy

This excel tool is used to demonstrate that pricing is different to costing. The five step process brings into focus all the elements of pricing.

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Product portfolio analysis

The Product Portfolio Analysis (PPA) excel tool can be used to develop product strategy in your own business and those of your customer. Use the tool to map out the: range of products, amount of sales made by each product range, determine factors for Market Attractiveness of the product (or use the default ones supplied), determine factors for Business Strength in regard to each product within the business (or use default ones supplied), rate each factor on a scale of 1 to 10. One aspect to note: Under Market Attractiveness if the Barriers to Entry were high in regard to that particular product for competitors to get into the market the score would be low around 2 or 3. Therefore it is less attractive to get into the market.

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Referral process diagnostic

Complete this diagnostic by answering 15 questions to review the performance of your current referral process. You will be presented with a score that indicates the current quality of your referral process. Use the score and any low scores as a guide on areas to improve.

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Self confidence diagnostic

The lack of self-confidence continues to be the number one area in which people generally struggle. This Diagnostic is designed to help you identify your level of self-confidence and focus on those areas that might be stopping you from being your best and achieving what you’d like to be. What areas do you need to focus on as a way of increasing your self-confidence? How are you sabotaging yourself? What are your road-blocks to success? The Diagnostic is designed to give you a clearer picture of the key areas which may be holding you back from achieving the kind of success that you desire. Once completed you are able to focus on the top 3 issues that have the greatest impact on you and your personal success.

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Succession planning diagnostic

Use this diagnostic tool to pin-point key issues / opportunities for your own business or that of a customer with regard to their succession planning activities. Assess the 10 Succession Planning Factors of a business being: Business Value, Professional Approach, Team Effectiveness, Leadership Development, Retirement Planning, Risk Management, Profit Performance, Business Planning, Continuous Improvement, Growth Performance.

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Sustainable competitive advantage

The Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) tool is used as a filter for all the key issues that an organization faces. It is used as a method to allocate resources i.e. time and money to the issues that will allow the organisation to win in the market place. It focuses on 2 important attributes: Key Success factors that would be considered of high value by your customer and the ability NOW to beat your competitors. As the excel tool will show you, attention is also paid to the future ability of the organisation on a given attribute to beat its competitors.

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Team style audit

This Team Style Audit Excel tool will help you identify your personal team style or those of your team members. Whilst it doesn’t really matter what style you are, the important thing is to make sure that you have all modes covered in your team. Each style is important. Just imagine how it would be if your team comprised only leaders. Conflict is the inevitable result. All Doers means no direction. All Thinkers means no action. All Carers means potentially non-strategic options. Too much of one style is disruptive. This tool will step you through the survey to determine your style.

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Waste audit

Waste elimination is one of the most effective ways to increase profitability / efficiency in businesses. To eliminate waste it is therefore important to fully understand exactly what waste is and where it can be found. Toyota, the Japanese automobile manufacturer, after years of work to remove waste they identified seven areas where waste was most prominent. Use this tool to identify 3 wastes in each of the 7 areas then identify the cost, ease of removal to end up with your 3 key wastes to work on initially.

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