Five Fundamental Questions That Unlock Your Organization’s Future Value

Seriously five?

Why not just one or two? Why so many? What does future value mean anyway?

This is too complicated. I’m just trying to continue serving my clients and fulfill my mission. Cash is tight, PPP helped, but seriously, I’m just keeping my head above water. Can you help with that?

To that I say, it depends, and it is precisely why asking and answering these questions are fundamental to your work today!

Our next series of blogs at A Cause Greater will be taking a deep dive into each of these five key questions. No secrets - here are the five fundamental questions:

1. Why does our organization exist?
2. What are our core values?
3. What is our vision for the future?
4. What will propel us towards that future and impede us along the way?
5. How will we get there?

But first, let’s explore the premise of the title of this blog series. In particular the word "fundamental" and the phrase "future value."

Fundamental

When I was a boy growing up in Harleysville Pennsylvania, I played Little League baseball for the Oilers. The ball fields were a quick bike ride away from my home. Our team was coached by Arlen Lapp, a local banker who volunteered his time to train would-be Major League ballplayers.

Every practice, we practiced the fundamentals of the game: hitting, catching, throwing, fielding, and base running. Every practice, without exception. Coach Lapp’s premise was simple, in the heat of the game, we want the fundamentals ingrained in our muscle memory so that when stress and anxiety come, we were able to depend on the fundamentals to do our best.

Not that I play a lot of ball these days, but if I do hit a ball into the outfield, I turn towards second, because as Coach Lapp would say “that's the direction to get home.”

These five fundamental questions to ask your organization are like the fundamentals of baseball…you have to practice them, keep your eyes on them, talk about them with others, and do them every day, every month, every quarter, every year…without exception.

Future Value

For many of us, the concept of future value is a new one. My first exposure to the concept was in graduate school when we learned about the future value of a series of cash flows. This concept was one way of valuing a company’s worth in today’s dollars. That was a great start, but it’s not enough.

When we think about future value at Design Group International, we don’t have to go too far for a definition and help. Our founder Mark L. Vincent has written widely on the topic. In particular how the role of the Chief Executive impacts a company’s future value…both for-profit and non-profit companies.

Future value is the value of what is not yet here, the value of what you are providing (an education, a home, a child’s care, insert your company’s product or service here) in the future and it that future’s marketplace.

As organizational leaders called to serve, it is essential for us to envision this future, its corresponding marketplace, and live into it. Otherwise, we are simply managers of what currently is rather than being creators of what could be or will be. This is what we mean by thinking, strategizing, and realizing a company's future value. 

By asking and answering these five fundamental questions you will be well prepared to live into the future of your organization. Stay tuned!

If you would like to talk more about the concept of future value, please feel free to schedule a high-value 30-minute discovery call with me. I'd be honored to listen and learn more about the value your organization provides.

As always, please feel free to call me at 616.516.9870 or email me at lons@designgroupintl.com.

Walking alongside you,

Lon L. Swartzentruber
CEO, Design Group International
Senior Design Partner