In Strategy, often asking the right question can be more powerful than giving an answer.
Here is a list of 300+ questions that can help you think through your strategy...
(Broken down by the Goal, Options, Strategy, Plans, Execution, and Look Out – as per the GOSPEL approach)
This list of questions will be updated regularly. So, don't forget to bookmark this post.
Ps. If you are overwhelmed by the number of questions, please don't forget that only six questions truly matter. All other questions are just derivations from/toward these six question
What is your Goal?
What are your Options?
What is your Strategy?
What are your Plans?
How would you drive the Execution?
Are you on Look Out?
Define Your Goals Clearly
Are the goals specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time-constrained?
Can I link my goal to some other bigger issue?
Do you have a clear vision of the future that guides how people think and make decisions?
Does the goal help to inspire people and generate a commitment to the company?
Have you set a clear goal for yourself and your team?
How clear and compelling is the goal of your organization? Where does it go?
How could your organization strengthen and develop over the next 12 months?
How do you want things to change?
How does your company help people? What values does it create?
How inspiring is the goal?
How will I know when I have achieved it?
How will you know when you have succeeded?
Is the goal compelling and engaging?
Is the goal specific and measurable?
Is the goal sufficiently ambitious and stretching - even audacious? Is it realistic? And will it bring significant success?
Is there a commitment to act decisively and consistently?
To what extent can I control the result? What are things outside my control?
What am I trying to achieve?
What are others doing? And how is the situation likely to alter over time?
What are the financial goals? What is a challenging and realistic expectation for the business's profitability? How much money should the company make?
What are the weaknesses of this goal?
What are your priorities?
What are your success criteria and performance measures? How will they be monitored?
What could your company achieve in 12 months? How might it be different?
What do your employees and customers want from your company? What would they value?
What more could your organization achieve?
What should be the priorities?
What will I do to ensure success? (Be as specific and detailed as possible, and give commitments)
When do I want to achieve the goal? What are the milestones to achieving my goal?
Which company inspires you? What do they do, and where can you learn from them?
Will achieving the goal stretch or break me?
Analyze Your Options Thoroughly
Are existing resources complementary? Can the way they interact and support each other be improved?
Are other companies entering the market? If not, why?
Are the people involved prepared (in terms of attitude) and skilled (in terms of ability) to react to changing circumstances? How can this be measured? What remedial action might be needed?
Can the resource be substituted? Again, the less easily replaced, the better.
Do you always consider multiple options before deciding? Is the quality of your thinking narrow or uninspired?
Does scarcity constrain the rate at which the resource can be developed?
Does the decision-making process routinely consider Multiple options?
How can the company use technology to benefit customers or to improve profit?
How creative are you and your team? How can your team's creativity be developed further?
How do your resources affect each other?
How do your stakeholders relate to each other? How could these relationships be strengthened or leveraged further?
How is the company responding to the opportunities and threats of globalization? What do customers value above the company's products/ brands? What makes it competitive and successful? How secure are these sources of advantage? And how can the business remains competitive and appealing to customers?
How is the flow of each resource changing?
How is your industry changing? And how are your customers' expectations evolving?
How many new potential resources are there?
How precarious is the business? Does it rely on too few products, customers, Suppliers, employees, or distribution channels? Is the company clearly focused? Does it have too many products, markets, and initiatives? Or are there too few opportunities on which it can capitalize?
How scarce and valuable are the products/services of your company? How vulnerable are these to being adopted by others or undermined?
How strong are the company's valuable assets? What can be done to strengthen them?
If I had unlimited resources, what options would I have?
If resources are developing in stages, what are the exact stages? How many of these resources are in each stage now? At what rate are they moving between different stages? How have the rates changed in the past? And how may they change in the future? What is the company doing that influences these flows? And by how much?
Is anything happening to the potential resource pool itself - is a shortage looming, or is an increase likely?
Is the resource durable? A resource that quickly deteriorates is unlikely to provide a sustainable advantage.
Is the resource easily copied? The less easily copied, the better.
Is the resource mobile? Some resources, like employees, can move quickly between firms, providing limited sustainable advantages.
Is the resource tradable? The less tradable the resources, the better.
Is there confidence in the ability to engage in strategic debate?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of expanding? What must be done to achieve the benefits and avoid the pitfalls?
What are the barriers to entry in your market? How high are they? Could you make it even harder for competitors to enter the market?
What are the business's most important resources?
What are the expectations of stakeholders? Are these expectations realistic, or do they need adjusting?
What are the impacts of unlikely events such as regulation changes, talent shortages, and political turmoil on the business?
What are the major constraints in finding a way forward? Are these constraints major or minor? How could their effects be reduced?
What are the most profitable parts of your business? In particular, what are the short, medium, and long-term prospects?
What political, economic, social, technological, legislative, and environmental trends could affect your business?
What are the short, medium, and long-term prospects for other potentially profitable parts?
What are the significant opportunities? What action is needed to realize them? Are there quick wins or low-hanging fruit that can be secured?
What are there forces driving down prices in your market? How can they be countered?
What can you learn from people/companies that do research well?
What do people in the organization see as the best option? What are their views of potential opportunities and difficulties?
What do the employees and executives see as the best options? What are the potential opportunities? What are the potential difficulties?
What global trends could benefit, threaten, or alter the way you do business?
What has caused similar problems in the past? What might be causing the problem to occur here and not elsewhere? What might be causing the problem to occur now and not previously?
What is the risk associated with our preferred option?
What may prevent the goal from being achieved? How will the company minimize the risk that could threaten the goal?
What other issues are there at work that affect my goal? What options do I have?
What precipitated the problem? What combination of factors might have caused the problem? If X is the cause, how does it explain all the facts? This question is crucial because we want to make sure we identify the right root-caused). If we wrongly identify the root cause, we may be fixing the wrong thing. So not only do we still have the original problem, but we also cause more problems.
What resources do you have in your business?
What situation best describes the challenges and opportunities faced by your business? Is this clearly and widely recognized?
What specific challenges are likely to be encountered? How can they be addressed?
When is the best time to enter or leave the market? What can be done to discourage and reduce competitors' effectiveness in entering? If you are planning to enter a new market, what makes your offer distinctive and likely to succeed?
Where are the most significant risks, threats, and potential pitfalls? How will these be avoided or overcome?
Where do the most profitable parts of the business lie?
Where is an entirely different way of thinking about this problem? What ideas can you borrow from another company/industry/geography? what can you remove /eliminate? What can you redesign to improve, e.g., process, procedure, or product? What can you do to be sure that you have a good idea?
Where is likely the best method of expansion? Is it affordable in terms of money, other resources, and time?
Which options best satisfy the other criteria?
Which options meet the non-negotiable constraints?
Which resources are strengthening and accumulating?
Which resources are weakening or draining away?
Which stakeholders are the most significant for your company? Whose inputs will be valuable when the strategy is being developed? Who will be decisive for its implementation?
Formulate Your Strategy Sharply
Are the company's customer insights unique, or are they also available to competitors?
Do the business strategy and goal reinforce each other?
Do you segment your markets? Are your market segments focused and simple? Or do they need more clarity?
Does everyone understand the strategy? What is it, and why it matters?
Does the strategy anticipate a broad range of changes in the business environment, e.g., market, economic, sociological, technological, and regulatory trends?
Has your thinking been as creative as possible?
Have you asked customers for ideas?
Have you consulted widely and used as much information as possible to generate your solution?
Have you gathered a group together to brainstorm ideas?
Have you talked to creative people who know nothing about the industry but may have different perspectives?
Have you talked to other companies and explored how things are done in other industries/countries? Are there any ideas you can borrow, adapt, or combine?
Have you talked to people in other areas who deal with similar issues?
How competitive is your industry? What is the trend, i.e., more competition or less? How competitive is your company? How does it compare to others in the eyes of the customers?
How could you build on the current pluses and eliminate the minuses?
How could you reverse the way you think about the problem?
How do I exceed my customers' expectations?
How effectively are competitors monitored?
How often do I communicate with my customers? Is it enough? Do I know my customers' business?
How would it radically change what you do?
If the problem was solved, what would the solution look like?
To what extent are customers and competitors considered when making decisions? Could this be improved?
What are the priorities for the business? What must be done to achieve the benefits? What must be done to avoid the pitfalls?
What are the priorities within the company? What are the priorities externally?
What do I do to add value for the customers?
What do my customers perceive as added value? Have I asked them, or am I making assumptions?
What do my customers want to achieve? Have I asked them? Where are my customers' long-term goals, and how can I help achieve them?
What does your business do well? What do you need to improve? And how will this be achieved?
What is the pricing strategy?
What is the primary source of competition, e.g., industry rivalry, substitutability, or something else?
What will make the product unique and valuable to customers?
What would be the perfect solution?
Which are the most profitable activities now and in the future?
Which benefits will be used to Sell the produce? How, where, and by whom will the product be sold?
Which market do you serve? Do your customers have anything in common?
Which products and services do you provide?
Who are your customers?
Who decides how and when to respond to competitors? And how effective have those responses been in the pose?
Develop Your Plans Faithfully
Are decisions made close to the action, or are they made some distance away? Has this / could this cause issues?
Are discounts targeted at the right sectors, or are they needlessly eroding profitability?
Are improvements needed in the ways the decisions are made or implemented?
Are market and customer decisions focused on improving profitability? Too often, attention is given to non-financial objectives, such as increasing market share, without considering the financial risks and alternatives.
Are the product's benefits (not just features) highlighted?
Are the company ready for changes that may result from greaser online sales?
Are the management information systems keeping pace with the demand? Are there persistent black holes/priority areas where the system needs to be improved/ overhauled?
Are the most effective and relevant performance measures in place to monitor and assess the effectiveness of financial decisions?
Are the risk inherent in strategy adequately understood? (such as acquiring a new business, developing a new product, or entering a new market)
Are there plans with clear milestones for implementing the strategy?
Are you actively overcoming the bureaucracy/procedure/ people blocking the actions? What is being done to ensure all parts of the business support the changes/new strategy?
Are you confronting the market leader? Are you in danger of waning a sleeping giant?
Are you forgetting, attracting, and retaining the most profitable customers?
At what level in the organization is the risk understood and actively managed? Do people fully realize the potential consequences of their actions? Are they equipped to understand, avoid, control, or mitigate risks?
Can you identify, prioritize, and explain the changes needed?
Could pricing be used more aggressively?
Could you sell more to existing customers?
Do employees resent risks? Or Are they encouraged to view certain risks as opportunities?
Do people in the company share information and insights about customers?
Do people in the company view sales from the customers' perspective?
Do you have the right people with the right skills and attitude? What are the people issues in your team, and how should they be addressed? Does your team have the proper structure, processes, and resources? How could the team's efficiency and structure improve?
Do you measure the profitability of customers?
Do you understand the major concerns of the stakeholders? How will these be addressed?
Does decision-making focus on the most profitable products and services, or is it preoccupied with peripheral issues?
Does the company act decisively to reassure and impress customers?
Does the company take a coordinated approach to selling online?
Does useful information flow freely and easily through the company to the people there need, i.e., and can use it to the greatest effect?
Have you analyzed the key business ratios recently? How useful are your performance indicators? Where are the main issues? Are you measuring the right thing? Is there a positive attitude to budgets and budget setting?
How are decisions made and problems solved? How could this be improved?
How are you going to strengthen Your stakeholder relationship?
How can the brand be used to a greater effect?
How efficiently is cash managed? Do your strategic business decisions take account of cash considerations, such as the time value of money?
How elastic are the product's prices? Could they be increased without reducing revenue?
How risky is your business? Does it rely on just a few products, customers, suppliers, personnel, or distribution channels?
How should you communicate with stakeholders, and with what frequency, message, and channel?
How successfully does your company sense, process, maintain, organize and collect information? Is this assessed? Could it be improved?
How susceptible is the company to black swan events or wild cards (i.e., high impact - low probability events?) How prepared is the company? Can the business compensate for its weaknesses and vulnerabilities?
How well does the company know each customer? Could more data be gathered and assessed?
How well is the information used for decision-making? Are there examples of failings that could be mitigated with more effective use of knowledge and information?
How will the company deal with unforeseen problems?
How will your strategy affect other aspects of the business, including the customers and the employees?
If there has been significant development (such as a new management structure or reporting arrangements), are the new responsibilities understood and accepted?
Is a simple, consistent, and compelling message being used to sell the produce?
Is any part of your plans weak or lacking clear direction? Do you lack confidence in moving the right decisions to meet the strategy?
Is buying online from you an easy and worthwhile experience for the customer? How could it be improved?
Is sufficient attention given to building and publicizing the brand?
Is the brand used consistently?
Is the chosen scenario versatile and appropriate in various circumstances?
Is the company too bureaucratic for intuitive, flexible, and shift decision-making?
Is the information in your company shared transparent, controlled, and formalized, with its honesty and integrity protected?
Is the product in the right part of the market?
Is the website adding to the company's knowledge base? How can the information collection be improved? How well does your company use the information to support management, innovation, business processes, and operations?
Is uncertainty a potential source of competitive advantage?
Is your company afraid of uncertainty, or does it enjoy thinking about it? Do people see, i.e., as a threat or as an opportunity?
Is your website attractive, practical, and relevant? Can it be improved?
People focus on things that are being measured. What should you be measuring? What are the best measurements to use?
Regarding your M&A plan: Does it tie to the business strategy?
Regarding your M&A plan: How can you create cultural fusion?
Regarding your M&A plan: How can you limit any adverse effects from cultural clashes?
Regarding your M&A plan: How might organizational culture issues affect the deal?
Regarding your M&A plan: How swiftly will the intended benefits be realized?
Regarding your M&A plan: How well is the deal structured?
Regarding your M&A plan: Is the leadership ready to make the decisions that will make or break the deal?
Regarding your M&A plan: Is the price acceptable and likely to provide a real return?
Regarding your M&A plan: On what can you compromise? And what is non-negotiable?
Regarding your M&A plan: What are the main issues in making the deal successful?
Regarding your M&A plan: What are the main priorities and intended benefits?
Regarding your M&A plan: What decisions are needed, and how will they be reached? How will the best target be identified?
Regarding your M&A plan: Who is responsible for planning and communicating the deal, promoting its benefits, and establishing the identity and focus of the new business? How will they achieve this?
Should a range of scenarios be applied?
What are review procedures in place to monitor risks?
What are the costs and benefits of operating adequate risk management controls?
What are the most important decisions facing the company? How are they being resolved? And who is responsible?
What are the most significant decisions arising over the next three years? What planning is being done to resolve these?
What are the principal milestones/steps that need to be taken to help people move towards the goal?
What do your customers, employees, and shareholders think of the company's ability to make the right decisions? How do they feel the situation could improve?
What do your stakeholders value? What do they want? And how effective are they in getting it?
What have I done about this situation, and what have been the results?
What is the best way to appeal to customers? How should the product be sold?
What is the medium- and long-term plan to sustain the company's success?
What is the overall level of risk exposure? Has this been assessed, and is it being actively monitored?
What is the purpose of the brand? What values does it need to emphasize to customers?
What money and time can we invest? Will the strategy implementation require more money and time than when we can invest?
What plans are in place to keep customers loyal? Are they appealing to customers and difficult for competitors to copy?
What will success look like? Where are the priority actions in the short and long term for the business, employees, and each individual?
When is the next price rise planned? Could it happen sooner?
Where are the greatest areas of risk relating to the most significant strategic decisions?
Where are the least profitable parts of the organization? How will they be improved?
Where are the potentially dislocating events that could inflict the most significant damage on your company? What risk is acceptable for the company to bear?
Where are the risks inherent in the company's strengths? And what is the company's ability to reduce its likelihood and impact on the business?
Where are the strategy's potential pitfalls? And how will these be overcome?
Which skills do you need to develop? And which skills and capabilities do your team needs to develop? How will this be accomplished?
Which specific leadership skills do you want to develop?
Who is involved, and what effect could they have on the situation?
Who sets prices in your company? How do they do it? Could the process be improved?
Would your company benefit from a knowledge audit, i.e., a systematic assessment of where critical knowledge lies within the business?
To what extent would the company be exposed if key staff left?
Drive Your Execution Relentlessly
Are you coordinating the efforts and talents of all employees, enabling them to improve their skills and change the company's prospects?
Are your operations unnecessarily bureaucratic? Could they be more simple and more flexible?
Do people support the strategy and use it to guide their actions?
Do you understand how the charge will affect people? If employees feel threatened, disregarded, or insecure, no matter how sensible the strategy is, the implementation will fail due to a lack of commitment.
Do you understand how the planned changes will affect people?
How can the culture of the business be improved?
How well do your HR policies reflect changing patterns of employment?
Is any part of the company weak and lacking clear direction?
Is there a commitment to act decisively and consistently? Once set, the course needs to be followed rigorously.
6. Look Out Vigilantly
Are customers contacted regularly? Are senior mongers actively involved with the customers?
Are the information systems capable of providing a clear understanding of customers?
Do the current strategic approaches typify traditional, business-as-usual thinking? Is the company prepared to accept that a strategy is failing or vulnerable?
Does your company collect, analyze, and use all the available areas? Is the information kept up-to-date?
Does your company delay essential decisions?
Does your company display excessive caution?
Does your company display overconfidence?
Does your company give excessive weight to the first piece of information received?
Does your company give undue weight to the recent or dramatic event?
Does your company incorrectly define a problem, often leading to a flawed decision?
Does your company pursue failing decisions in a sad attempt to recover past investment and credibility?
Does your company seek confirming evidence to justify past or present decisions?
Does your company seek to maintain the status quo?
How can improvements be made in competitiveness, innovation, and customer service?
How can technology be used to improve strategy?
How comprehensively are competitors & actions monitored?
How creative is the company in responding to customers' demands? What would you improve?
How does your business involve customers? Are efforts made to understand what they want? Are you sure about what your customers value?
How effectively does customer information flow around the organization?
Is market data used merely to justify predetermined courses of action?
Is the company in touch with the market's latest developments and the changing needs of customers? Is it prepared to challenge its confidence in the existing approach?
Is the strategy relevant, continuing to guide people's thinking given emerging trends and changing events?
Is there an accurate, consistent, and shared understanding of customers - who they are and what they want?
Is there an overemphasis on gathering and measuring data at the expense of action?
To what extent does an informed, dynamic view of the market guide managers' actions?
What lessons can be learned from the use of technology?
What results do we want, need, or expect? Has the strategy delivered this? If not, by when will it deliver this?
Check this checklist of Winning Strategy.
Learn more about Winning Strategy here.
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