Step 4: 2. Position Components

1. Positions and Opportunities > 1. Understanding Positions > 2. Position Components

Which of the following best describes your questions about the elements of a strategic position?

1. I need to better understand how positions are analyzed on the basis of their elemental components.1.3 Elemental Analysis) (A free article with some of the basics is available to guests here).
2. I need to understand the external elements of a position in the competitive environment..
   1.4 The External Environment

   1.4 The External Environment

   "You must know the battleground.
   You must know the time of battle."
   Sun Tzu's The Art of War 6:6:1-2
   

   Situation: 

   External conditions are all properties of our positions that we cannot directly control. We have three problems in dealing with these environmental conditions. First, there are a vast number of such conditions in a competitive environment. So many that all external conditions cannot be known. Our second problem is knowing which of these conditions are important to our position and which are not. Most of us fail to recognize the environmental forces that affect us. We are distracted by events that are recent and noisy while ignoring other conditions that are much more important. Finally, our last problem is knowing how to relate all these conditions to create a comprehensive picture of our situation.

3. I need to understand the internal elements of a position within competing agents .
   1.5 Competing Agents

   1.5 Competing Agents

   "Which method of command works?
   Which group of forces has the strength?"
   Sun Tzu's The Art of War 1:2:7
   

   Situation: 

   As competitors, that is, as agents or actors in a competitive landscape, we must make decisions and execute actions to improve our strategic position. Choices must be made, but those choices must be executed as well. Decisions and execution are two sides of the same coin. The problem is that most people do not have a clear mental model of what competitors are and how they interact. Competing agents consist of specific components. These characteristics play important roles in how a given competitor makes decisions and executes them. Without a model for understanding competitors, we skip from one competitive characteristic to the next, trying to figure out what role it plays. We miss certain important elements while fixating on a few. Only through luck and chance do we hit upon what is and is not important in a given situation with a given set of competing agents.