Strategic environment.
What are the industry trends and how are they changing? Which microeconomic and macroeconomic factors are likely to affect the industry in the near future? How are customer needs, priorities, and jobs-to-be-done changing? Where are today’s profit pools, and how are they likely to evolve or be disrupted? How are competitors, whether direct or indirect, emerging or traditional, answering to changing customer needs and industry trends? What are the most effective choices or changes that would allow us to generate value relative to rivals?
Competitive advantage
How well are we managing corporate personnel, resources, intellectual properties, and know-how relative to rivals? Do we have unique access to valuable assets that are essential for competitive advantage? And how well are we leveraging them? What strategies, moves, or changes are needed to obtain new assets or capabilities for future advantage.
Link between strategy and execution
How can we optimize the alignment between strategy and execution? What’s the best way to set and communicate goals? To receive and manage market feedback for improving learning and responsiveness to changes? To execute strategy pivots or implement necessary improvements?