Strategic Audit:
The Fresh Eyes Assessment

"In business what's dangerous is not to evolve ."

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon

strategic audit with fresh eyes

According to the Harvard Business Review:

“When asked recently to name the one attribute CEOs will need most to succeed in the turbulent times ahead, Michael Dell, the chief executive of Dell, Inc., replied, “I would place my bet on curiosity.”

Dell was responding to a 2015 PwC survey of more than a thousand CEOs, a number of whom cited “curiosity” and “open-mindedness” as leadership traits that are becoming increasingly critical in challenging times.

Another of the respondents, McCormick & Company CEO Alan D. Wilson, noted that business leaders who “are always expanding their perspective and what they know—and have that natural curiosity—are the people that are going to be successful.”

Harvard Business Review article "Why Curious People Are Destined for the C-Suite", by Warren Berger (September 2015)

A Strategic Audit with Fresh Eyes:
Gain a Fresh Perspective of Opportunities and Challenges

Our strategic audit brings fresh, unbiased eyes and evaluates all aspects of your business.  That is why we call our strategic audit the Fresh Eyes Assessment™. The assessment uncovers both opportunities and hidden issues that are in your blind spots and blocking your potential profits!

The advantage of this type of strategic audit or assessment is that we have no prior beliefs about your business, your people, your market positioning and what is or is not possible for your company to achieve.

This assessment with truly fresh eyes makes all the difference in the world.  Imagine yourself sitting in the driver seat of an 18-wheeler.  Studies have shown that one can easily place as many as 4 full-size cars in the blind spots of the driver in that truck. Wow! That is what we find in corporations and businesses we assess:  The decision makers are often too close to their own business and – in many ways – know too much about their own businesses to realize where the blocks are that once removed open the floodgates to more profits. much productivity and enhanced team culture.

our strategic audit is called Fresh Eyes Assessment

Benefits of the Strategic Audit

  • Gain a fresh perspective of your business, your team and yourself
  • Don't waste valuable time and money working on improvements that - after objective evaluation with fresh eyes - don't turn out to be of top priority.  Instead, you get to focus on the top item or two that give/s you the best return on investment of your time and money.
  • Discover which opportunities have been overlooked, forgotten about or been on the backburner
  • Find out whether there are any hidden challenges that can hurt your business now or in the foreseeable future
  • Stay fresh and curious in your approach to being in business and living life on purpose
Stephie Altohuse, Ph.D. offers leadership trainign and executive coachiing for geeks

A Great Start: The Do-It-Yourself Method

We offer the Strategic Audit aka Fresh Eyes Assessment as an in-depth assessment tool that tells you which areas will give you a high return-on-investment if you give them extra attention.

Sometimes it is great to take a quick look before committing to an in-depth analysis. That is where the Strategic Audit Template comes in.

It is free and within a few minutes, you'll know which area in your business with the greatest return on investment when you make some improvements. Given that there is almost always a long list of things we could do to improve our business, that is a few minutes well invested.

Want to dive deeper and really find out which actions to take to make your business function better. and more rewarding? Talk to us about doing the Fresh Eyes Assessment with you.

That brings up the questions: How does that work?

How We Conduct the Strategic Audit

We offer the strategic audit (Fresh Eyes Assessment™) in two formats:

Onsite Method:

  • Dr. Stephie comes onsite to your company. We agree with you upfront which people on your team she ought to have a conversation. Most of these conversations will be 1-on-1.  Dr. Stephie is good at making your team members feel comfortable to talk with her. In debriefing the results she will do her best to protect the identity of the people who gave the information (to the extent possible). What is important is that you, the leader, get a fresh, unedited perspective of everything that is happening in y our company including thoughts and ideas that may not have been voiced loudly enough (or in front of you) to be audible to you.
  • Dr. Stephie will digest the information and prepare a presentation for you with the results.
  • Following the debriefing, you and Dr. Stephie will sit down together and jointly create an action plan.
  • We believe that while you deserve and will get a report, the most important outcome of the strategic audit is a co-created action plan you can use immediately to get the results you desire!

Online Method:

  • We send an online strategic audit (Fresh Eyes Assessment™) survey, tailored to your company, to  you and the team members you select (we will advise you how to select).
  • We collect your responses and Dr. Stephie digests them.
  • Dr. Stephie will meet with you via a video conference session (or in person, if preferred) and give you a presentation of the results.
  • Following the presentation, we will co-create an action plan you can use immediately to produce the results that are most important to you. This can be done either in the same session or we can set up a separate session for the creation of the action plan.

With both methods:

  • What is very important to the success of the strategic audit/Fresh Eyes Assessment, is that YOU are an integral part of creating the plan. We have seen many situations in which a company received a beautiful action plan from a consultant - and then the implementation failed. The reason is that the consultant did not ask their client to participate in creating the plan.
  • If you want our help in implementing the plan, we are happy to do it. We love taking action and getting results with you!
“Thank you for your strategic guidance and the “Fresh Eyes Assessment."  Through your leadership, and in a short time, we exceeded our expectations in revenue and profitability, and Giroux Glass has emerged as a stronger, independent employee ownership managed company.”
 
Anne-Merelie Murrell, CEO, Giroux Glass, Inc.
 

"Dr. Stephie Althouse is an insightful and creative consultant and executive coach. Her Fresh Eyes Assessment has been integral to positioning the company for higher profits. She has displayed tireless dedication, tremendous skill and beyond-the-call-of-duty commitment in guiding us in our efforts to create our family legacy."

Eddie Moreno, Vice-President, Sales at The Arrowhead Leasing Company, Inc.

"Dr. Stephie Althouse excels in the corporate world as a Visiting CEO. She developed a "Fresh Eyes Assessment" and does a turn around with troubled companies. She has pulled them from near bankruptcy to profit in a relatively short time. One of her specialties is working with ESOP companies."

June Davidson, Ph.D., President of American Seminar Leaders Association and Coaching Firm International, Asla.com

"My business had stopped growing at the rate I thought it could, and I knew that I needed some help. Dr. Stephie did an incredible job at identifying what makes my business special and helped me to maximize that uniqueness to help grow business.  My business is running much smoother and more efficiently, and my stress level has dropped considerably."

Bill Walsh, District Manager, Farmers Insurance, District Carlsbad, CA

“Dr. Stephie is a driven and highly energetic executive. She has kept the team focused, and the company growing, even during the recent economic cycle. Last year’s revenues increased 41%. Stephie has expanded the company’s portfolio of products and skills into new technology areas. Client satisfaction is very high.”

Jim Waring, Executive Chairman, CleanTECH San Diego

Fantastic CEO!!  Couldn’t ask for a better person to steer the ship of my company.  Great advisor, problem solver, people person, and system analyst.

Joy Megas, CEO, Simply Pay Yourself First

Top Notch CEO testimonials for executive coaching , consulting and leadership training

Discover How Our Strategic Audit, the Fresh Eyes Assessment™, Helps You Decide Which Actions to Focus On
To Achieve Your Goals the Fastest

  • Which opportunities have been overlooked?
  • Which challenges may be lurking that can hurt your business?
  • Which of the many possible actions you could take to improve your business give you the highest return-on-investment of your time and money?