Strategy Formulation

Critical Question Analysis (CQA)

 

  

 
 

Leaders of a number of greatest businesses run their companies by questions, not by answers. In the strategy process, they formulate key strategic questions that they have to answer.

Formulating appropriate organizational strategy is a process of critical question analysis – answering the following four basic questions:

  

 
 

① What are the purpose and objectives of the organization?

The answer to this question will tell you where your organization should be going. As appropriate strategy should reflect both organizational purpose and objectives, by answering this during the strategy formulation process, you will remember this important point and thereby minimize inconsistencies among your organization's vision, purposes, objectives, and strategies.

  

Vision Articulated

Strategic Intent

3 Strategies of Market Leaders

Strategic Management

Environmental Analysis

Critical Questions

  

 
 

② Where is the organization presently going?

The answer to this question will tell you if your organization is achieving its goals, and if it is, whether the level of progress is satisfactory. Whereas the first question focuses on where your organization should be going, this one focuses on where your organization is actually going.

③ In what kind of environment does the organization now exist?

Both internal and external environments – factors inside and outside your organization – are covered in this question. For example, assume that a poorly trained middle-management team and a sudden influx of competitors in a market are factors in, respectively, the internal and external environments of your organization. Any strategy formulated, if it is to be appropriate, must deal with these factors.

⑤ What can be done to better achieve organizational objectives in the future?

It is the answer to this question that results in the strategy of your organization. The question should be answered, however, only after you have had an adequate opportunity to reflect on the answers to the previous three questions.

 

 
 

You cannot develop an appropriate organizational strategy unless you have a clear understanding of where the organization wants to go, where it is going, and in what environment it exists.

  

Jack Welch's 5 Strategic Questions

9 Questions for Sustainable Profits