Four Questions with Numbers

You know your business. You plug in the numbers:

Target Number 

First, you entered your baseline number in the top-left quadrant. It’s in $ or €. 

Key Success Factors 

Second, you listed in the bottom-left quadrant the key success factors. Assign a % to each success factor. The total may not exceed 100%. Then multiply each % by your target number. This gives you a $ or € number for each success factor.

Based on Collaboration 

Third, in the top-right quadrant you listed those factors dependent on cross-border collaboration. Assign a % to each success factor. The total may exceed 100% since you are estimating for each factor independent of each other. 

Then multiply each % by that success factor’s contribution to the target number as estimated in the bottom-left quadrant. This gives you a $ or € number for collaboration’s contribution to each success factor. 

Addressing Cultural Differences

Fourth, look at your current level investment in ensuring that colleagues in cross-border teams understand cultural differences. See that number as a percentage of the combined numbers arrived at in the third quadrant. Is it enough, too much, or too little?


Back to Four Questions.