Via Pragmatic Marketing, I found In Search of Overhead Heroes” by George Tillman, who advocates thinking like a business even if you're supporting the business, not contributing directly to revenue. Certainly, you're supposed to align yourself and contain costs. But here are the questions I felt were most important for any organization to answer:
• What is our purpose?
• Who are our customers?
• What do different customers want and need to be more effective in their jobs?
• What services and products should we, and can we, provide?
• Are we satisfying our customers?
Whether you're in an organization that supports the bottom line or contributes to it, these are great questions to ask and answer.