Just because you have the capability to do something, is it the right thing to do ?

General Omar Bradley once spoke about a similar quandry with "Red" China:

"...This strategy would involve us in the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy" (15 MAY 1951).

Where do you start your strategic thinking?

1. What is my overall goal? What is my outcome?
   1. What is the object or action under consideration?
   2. Who's initiative brought it under consideration?
   3. Did someone seek us; or did we seek it?
   4. How does this (solved) help the goal?
   5. Do we have to solve it?
   6. What is my specialized "strong suite" in achieving my goals?
2. What is the current situation?
   1. How did we get here?
   2. What are the constraints that complicate the solution?
   3. Self-imposed?
   4. Outside-imposed?
3. What criteria do/will we use to measure the solution?
   1. Are there criteria fixed?
   2. What if they could be changed? How?
   3. The problem/situation is part of what larger system?
   4. If we could change the system/boundaries/rules, would it change or solve the problem?
4. Whose problem is it?
   1. Who isn't affected?
   2. How much of the system is affected?
   3. Does it affect the organization's Critical Success Factors?

Want to find out more business applications and theory about strategy? The Business Strategy page will hunt for the best customer, and the Other Considerations and Theory page teases your mind.

This free download page is from Gustafson's Training and Development web site. (C) 1999 W. N. Gustafson. Permission is granted to print or save for personal purposes.