The statement above was made by Tarun Khanna in Harvard Business Review in both September and November 2014. Context is the background in which a future event takes place, it is often real or perceived and includes factors such as geography, genders, industries, job roles, attitudes, beliefs, values, politics, cultures, symbols, organizational climate, the past, personal ethics and the preferred future.
Management needs to get out of its defensive mode and must be open to intelligence and welcoming to news, even if it is bad news. Companies need different systems for managing their core business and for managing new opportunities. Industry analysis is part of the core business, while arena analysis deals with new opportunities.
Choosing a strategy entails making decisions that explicitly cut off possibilities and options. It is a natural reaction to make the challenge less daunting by turning it into a problem that can be solved with tried and tested tools. The strategic plan is supported with detailed spreadsheets that project costs and revenues quite far into the future. At the end of this strategy process everyone feels much less scared; so this is about coping with fear of the unknown.