Q1. Why did you select this article? What is its visceral appeal to you?
Q2. Identify the central organization in the article. To be clear: an organization is larger than a single individual, but smaller than an entire society.
Q3. Briefly summarize a key strategic issue illuminated in your article. Also, is the strategic issue chiefly at the business-level ("the core business model"), the product-level ("key goods or services") or a functional-level ("crucial internal processes")?
Q4. Strategy is always "all-inclusive"; that is, we use all tools at our disposal. Are there any elements from our prior class study (e.g., decision-making, culture, Page 2 of 2 diversity, HR, ethics/CSR, the role of managers) that you think are relevant as to how this strategic issue arose?
Q5. How do you know this issue is truly strategic? That is, how do you know that the issue is long-term in nature, is organization-wide in scope, and requires substantive change on the part of many individuals?
Q6. Do you think the organization is (or should be) primarily using an external approach to strategy or an internal approach to strategy? Which specific elements of external and internal strategy (textbook, HBR, supplemental readings, lectures) do you think best explains or predicts an organizational outcome associated with this strategic issue?
Q7. Do you believe that somewhere in the question or the answer to the strategic issue that either the strategic vision or the strategic mission of the organization is likely to change?
Q8. Using the language of the Balanced Scorecard, what might be one or two measures that the organization can use to know that any intervention to address the key strategic issue was, indeed, successful?