The Survey Process Participating firms complete an eight section Microsoft Excel-based questionnaire covering all aspects of their business including: management approach, financial performance, distribution, technology, operations, compensation philosophy and structure, and position-by-position compensation information. The Competitive Challenges team works with your firm to answer methodology-related questions and ensure smooth completion of the survey. Competitive Challenges follows a research cycle that provides results to clients in the late summer/early fall of each year. This allows you to use the research, and our consulting, to evaluate important business decisions before planning deadlines. After each survey cycle, the Competitive Challenges team completes a thorough review of the questionnaire and gathers input from participants. During this interactive process, questions are added or modified to provide additional value to the end product. We continuously gather and evaluate feedback from clients on improving the survey and integrate that into our thinking.