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to speed, growth, customers, products/services, innovation, talent, and global reach? How does their
strategy compare to yours? Leverage knowledge about your similarities and differences to make
better strategic decisions. Apply Michael Porter’s Five Forces model to assess the intensity of the
competition’s power and the profitability of your industry. (For more information, visit
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm.) Spark conversations about how to
anticipate the different moving parts in the marketplace. How might you best differentiate and keep
your organization out in front?

4. Not standing out in the marketplace? Identify your distinctive advantage. A strategy is about
what you do and what you want to become. It’s also about what you don’t do and do not aspire to be.
No organization can be all things to all people. You have to make choices. Differentiation can take
many forms. You can be a low-cost leader. Deliver quality products, services, or experiences. Or
have superior customer relationships. A distinctive advantage is something that is hard for
competitors to copy or develop. Spend time understanding your unique capabilities and offerings.
Take a stand on what you’ll continue to strengthen and promote in the future. Embed this strategy
into the culture—employees of low-cost providers hunt for cost-savings; quality-first employees
demonstrate an eye for detail; customer-service leaders treat everyone as special. Identify concrete
ways to leverage what makes you distinct.

5. Developing a strategy in a vacuum? Scan the environment first. Before crafting a strategic plan,
you need to get a handle on the context in which you operate. Pull together people with diverse
knowledge and create a detailed picture. There are a number of scanning frameworks you can use.
The SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is widely used to identify
internal and external factors that define and shape a competitive position in the marketplace. A PEST
analysis helps to capture the big picture in terms of Political, Economic, Social, Technological topics.
(Some add Legal and Environmental.) Bennis and Nanus suggest using the Quick Environmental
Scanning Technique (QUEST). In this framework, trends are observed, potential market conditions
are forecasted, and options are discussed to address evolving conditions.

6. Can’t predict the future? Consider multiple scenarios. It’s not easy to develop strategic plans
when faced with so many unknowns. Scenario planning can assist by generating useful dialogue and
insights. It’s not about predicting the future. It’s about considering various possibilities. Discuss your
assumptions about what might happen. Develop a small number of plausible scenarios (stories)
about how the future might unfold. Think through how the organization could/should respond if faced
with shifts in socioeconomic, political, technological, environmental, or social areas. Then do what
expert Peter Schwartz calls “rehearsing the implications.” How might things impact your industry,
organization, stakeholders? What decisions would you need to make? What else might be triggered?
What contingencies should be in place? Scenario planning makes you better prepared to recognize
signals that warrant a response. And better able to anticipate, plan, and adapt when changes arise.

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