Strategy without analysis is like turning up to play a sporting match when you don’t know what sport you’re playing, what equipment to bring, the rules, who your opponent is or indeed where to show up for the game.

It’s not uncommon for far reaching errors to be made due to a simple lack of analysis.  The people involved may know what to do but never get that far because they didn’t pause and think.

Sun Tzu advocated analyzing oneself and the enemy according to a suite of weighted factors to come up with a score.

You obviously need good information in order to conduct good analysis.  What should you analyse? Start with the goal you have in mind – make it as specific as you can.

Then ask lots of questions.  Surprisingly, the ability to ask good questions is more important than having ready made answers.

I use a toolkit of question prompts I have developed over the past twenty years as a way to pose questions from different perspectives.  Our IP Playbook has been used in the same way.

Provided that you act on it in a timely and appropriate manner, you can never have too much analysis.

This is one of the 100 IP Strategy Principles.

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