JULY 2017 / NO. 2
TAGS: WHY, TRENDS, CYCLES, SCENARIOS

Crucial questions in business today

In Strategic Intelligence the most crucial and most frequently used word is ‘why’
Asking the right questions is the biggest issue to challenge top management. Examples of crucial questions include: how long will our sources of competitive advantage survive in the face of technological shifts? How will changing customer and societal expectations affect our business models? What does it mean to be an international company when the benefits of international integration are under intense scrutiny?
Management today needs to rethink how and where they compete, and they have to identify both current and future trends which impact company performance. You must see this positively, because “the trend is your friend”.
Four questions can help you frame the problems before solving them:
  1. What are the megatrends that will reshape your business environment? The challenge is to identify what forces drive these megatrends
  2. How will these megatrends disrupt your sector of industry and your businesses? The challenge is to tear down both these megatrends and driving forces so that you can act by reaction, or better still, by anticipation
  3. What are the most uncertain issues which have the highest impact on the company? The challenge here is to create answers aligned with scenario-planning techniques
  4. What are the implications of the potential scenarios? The final challenge is to formulate the applicable courses of future action
In framing these problems, we use a combination of Scenario Planning (1), Trend Impact Analysis (2), and Pre-Mortem Analysis (3), from our strategic intelligence solutions toolbox. This combination of applicable analysis tools helps you increase the likelihood of making better strategic choices and decisions by 30-50%.
“Strategy is like trying to ride a bicycle while you are inventing it”, Igor Ansoff
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