Executives come up with new strategies all the time. Some are good, many are fair, and some are downright poor. How do you know the difference? Three McKinsey & Co. strategists-Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit-came up with 10 questions to test your strategy.

 

According to a 2010 McKinsey survey of 2,135 global executives, few strategies (about one third) can pass even three of the tests. How well would your company's strategy do? Take the test and find out. While there are ten tests, not all of them are equally important and the authors of the tests say a strategy can succeed without passing all of them. Here are the ten questions that should start a conversation the next time your strategy or your company's strategy is up for discussion:

 

As we examine this question, it's important to recognize how the roles of both the CTO and the CIO are changing.

In many enterprise organizations, CTOs are responsible for setting technology strategies and establishing standards while ensuring that technology that's used by the business adheres to those criteria. Meanwhile, CIOs are accountable for working with business and functional leaders to set business strategy and to make sure that the IT organization is aligned in meeting the needs and expectations of the business.