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Ten Questions People Ask about Virtual CEO™
- Who is Virtual CEO™ ?
- Are specific editions of the tool available?
- Is Virtual CEO available in other languages?
- How many companies have used Virtual CEO™?
- How much does it cost?
- How long does it take?
- What is the scope of an action plan?
- How do you resolve perception differences between the senior person and the rest of the leadership team? Or between the leadership team and non-management staff?
- Many assessments are confrontational and judgmental. Is this one?
Virtual CEO™ is a software development company. Cool Strategies utilized their technology and groundbreaking assessment work to create the Nonprofit Edition of the Virtual CEO assessment tool, and the Church Edition of the tool called the Dynamic Church Inventory.
Yes. The original tool was developed for the corporate marketplace, but Cool Strategies™ saw the potential for using it in nonprofit and church situations. With Virtual CEO™’s support, we made significant changes to the tool to make it effective in other environments. Government, banking, credit union, and other editions of the tool are also available.
The tool has been developed in a number of languages and more are being developed all the time. We encourage you to contact Virtual CEO for the status of these development projects.
Over 700 companies of all sizes and across numerous industries have gone through the Virtual CEO™ assessment. We estimate within the next five years several thousand companies, including churches and nonprofits, will be using Virtual CEO™ to regularly assess their performance and progress, and to build targeted action plans around their top priorities.
Engagement pricing is based on the number of participants. Cool Strategies™ offers churches and very small nonprofit organizations a single person consultation for only $500. This includes a full engagement report and a one hour consultation over the phone. Full team, onsite engagements run anywhere from $5,000 or 6,000 (for 3-5 senior staff and 3-5 non-management staff) on up, plus expenses. Final quotes depend on the size of the church or organization, how many leaders and non-management staff will be involved in the assessment, and how many different reports will be generated from their input.
It takes about 90-120 minutes for a senior leader to complete an assessment. Non-management assessments can be completed in 60 minutes. Progress can be saved and resumed at any time. Because the tool is web-based, the evaluation can be conducted at any time and from any location where you have access to the web. One and one-half to two days are allocated for discussion and action planning—regardless of the size of your organization or church!
They vary, though in our experience, many plans run out about 1 year. Much more than that and the variables become too significant for definitive planning, or the milestones have not been sufficiently defined to ensure action. Plans break your priorities into major objectives. Major objectives are defined by identifying an owner for the objectives, resources required for completion, individual action items and their due dates, and clear measurements that will define successful completion. Cool Strategies™ offers sample action plans so you can see what a plan looks like.
Cool Strategies™’ designed special radar plots to clearly and quickly portray the perception differences between different groups of people. The graph specific to the senior leader is shared with that individual in confidence at the start of the onsite engagement to facilitate his/her understanding of the key differences, and to begin the process of addressing gaps. A graph is also produced to show the differences between senior management and non-management, or for that matter, between any groups of participants our client wants. The assessment and facilitation process moves groups together, not apart. This has been proven time and again.
Absolutely not. We invite you to contact any Cool Strategies client who has been through this process and ask them yourself! This process is not about comparing your performance to other companies, or obtaining a certain score. Your entire evaluation is done relative to your own mean (average) scores. Our desire is for you to identify what it is going to take to move your organization toward greater health, regardless of good or bad your current situation is. This process works extremely well in all kinds of situations.
10. How often should an organizational assess its performance?
We recommend organizations conduct a formal, thorough evaluation every year. This ensures changes are having their desired results and are in line with expectations, achievements are celebrated, objective benchmarks are reset, and new plans are drawn based on your new situation and plans.
If Cool Strategies™ can answer any further questions, let us know! We’re here to help.
