A company must go beyond the financial figures to examine its strategic health. Strategic health refers to the future health of an organization. To monitor its strategic health, a company needs to find a way to measure it. Such measures of strategic health are like early warning systems: they alert you to the signs of crisis two or three years before the crisis is likely to arrive, making it possible to take corrective action. 12 (Whether a company takes advantage of these early warnings is another matter.)