If businesses want to stay in business they must have a product or service that people want and are prepared to pay for. With those key criteria in place, the quest is to become increasingly responsive to the customers’ needs: there is a close link between responsiveness and profitability. Responsiveness is giving customers what they want (courteously, of course), when they want it (within an acceptable time frame), at a price that matches or exceeds their expectations. The six qualities identified as contributing to increasing an organization’s level of responsiveness, and, therefore, its profitability are as follows… 1. Make and implement decisions on a timely basis—calculate your Decision-Making Index. Improved decision-making enhances profitability, so it’s imperative for decisions to be made in an appropriate time. And you can calculate your Decision-Making Index, which will prove invaluable in improving turnaround time associated with decision-making. Calculating your Decision-Making Index is a relatively straightforward [...]