McKinsey uses 10 good questions to challenge a client's business strategies, and a short article on the McKinsey website explains them (along with useful links for further reading). [My comments are in italics].
- Will your strategy beat the market? [What are you doing differently to the rest?]
- Does your strategy tap a true source of advantage? [Don't kid yourself.]
- Is your strategy granular about where to compete? [Who will value your market offer, and who won't?]
- Does your strategy put you ahead of trends? [Being "customer-led" often means you'll be too late.]
- Does your strategy rest on privileged insights? [Most data is noise; what "blinding flash of the obvious" have you spotted before anyone else?]
- Does your strategy embrace uncertainty? [Don't blithely assume it will all work, but equally avoid "paralysis by analysis".]
- Does your strategy balance commitment and flexibility? [Allow for evolution; a few well-timed big actions, some smaller exploratory moves, and some resources (money) held in reserve.]
- Is your strategy contaminated by bias? [Again, don't kid yourself, but on the other hand, passion and belief inevitably involve some form of bias.]
- Is there conviction to act on your strategy? [Does the team want to make it happen?]
- Have you translated your strategy into an action plan? [Strategy is worthless without action; commit people, time and money to make it happen.]