There are two categories of business decision, which require sets of questions:

• Management decisions, regarding the part of your organization’s resources that you can directly control
• Strategic decisions, regarding your position within the larger competitive environment, which you cannot control directly

Within the management realm, you ask:

1. How does it affect product quality?
2. How does it affect product cost?
3. How does it affect operation efficiency?

Within the competitive realm you ask:

1. What is my position relative to the competition in the customer’s mind?
2. Where is there an opening that allows me to improve my relative position against the competition despite their likely responses?
3. Do I have the resources to take advantage of that opening or opportunity better than my competition?