1. Speed, flexibility, adaptability to change
2. Sustained and steady top-line growth
3. Customer loyalty/retention
4. Stimulating innovation/
creativity/enabling entrepreneurship
5. Tight cost control
6. Availability of talented managers/executives
7. Cost/ability to innovate
8. Employee loyalty/commitment/job satisfaction
9. Transferring knowledge/ideas practices
within the company
10. Succession planning
11. Making investment/capital allocation decisions
12. Aligning IT with business goals
13. Regulatory compliance
14. Making best/highest use of available data
15. Management/board succession
16. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
Original writing date: June 21, 2005