BLOG | Why Opportunity? Why Six Questions?

The decision to pursue an opportunity for growth is relatively obvious, yes? But, the wiser, more difficult question that follows is, “how will we grow?”

As Tom Paterson, the creator of the StratOp strategic planning process said, “Success is not unlimited opportunity, but focused possibilities.”

Think about your organization right now. You have certain core competencies already in place. You have some subject matter expertise. You have a customer base. But you also have inherent risk embedded in your model. You have limitations in place either with finances, human capital, or limited areas of expertise. You have a culture—whether you can identify it or not.

You can’t just grow your business in any direction. You have certain restrictions already confining where you can grow. You also have unconscious bias. Herein lies the fundamental challenge with pursuing opportunities—you cannot be objective.

You know you must pursue opportunities, but your subjective mind is going to cloud your best judgment. This is how the 6Q (Six Questions) tool can help, guiding you as you consider your next opportunity.

Why 6Questions?

You, and every great leader, needs as many objective reference points as possible when pursuing an opportunity that has inherent risk—and every opportunity has risk.

Subjectivity is a quiet killer—it’s the “American Idol stupor”.

Think about that person who goes in for the American Idol audition, and they’re horrible; and, in your mind, you’re thinking, “why didn’t anyone ever tell that kid they couldn’t sing?”

Subjectivity clouds our rational mind.

Now, I know I’m being an armchair quarterback, and it’s easy to put a bunch of black ink on paper about creating a business around a product the consumer doesn’t want.

I’m no different. My self-awareness is always inaccurate. We never see things as they are, we only see things as we are.

Let’s learn to see both sides.

The 6Q tool is a quantitative and qualitative discovery process that pushes your inherent subjectivity to the edges of objectivity. We will guide you through a logical progression of questions and what ifs, leading to a qualitative analysis of weighted answers and producing a quantitative ROI analysis—all to help you identify the strength of your specific opportunity.

This tool is ideal if you are looking to take a new product or business to market. Additionally, if you are in product development, research development, or in finance looking to analyze financing opportunities, this tool can provide a deeper analysis of your current state.

Who knows, you might just have the golden ticket to Hollywood! (But let’s be objective about it.)

Click here to schedule a demo or here to learn more.