Think outside the box: Fatih Ogun, Head of Strategy at Akbank, shares some bold and rarely-asked questions that may hold the keys to long-term business success.
In the universe of business strategy, we often encounter a number of well-known questions: What are our core competencies? How do we maximize profitability? Who is our target customer? These questions are crucial but they are also frequently asked. However, aside from this set, seldom-asked questions often hold the potential to unlock deeper insights into long-term success. In this article, we aim to focus on such questions – overlooked but critical inquiries that can shape, refine and drive a business strategy toward sustained competitive advantage and growth.
What value are we willing to destroy to achieve new growth?
Disruption and innovation have become buzzwords in business circles. However, businesses often neglect the less glamorous counterpart to innovation: destruction. As companies introduce new products, technologies or processes, they may need to ‘destroy’ elements of their existing business model. This perspective applies to nearly every industry – whether it’s discontinuing a popular product, shuttering an outdated business unit or abandoning a legacy system that once defined success. Companies must ask themselves: What existing value or capability are we willing to destroy today to fuel tomorrow's growth?
What is the expiration date of our current business model?
S-curves are a well-known concept in business theory, representing the lifecycle of growth and decline that every business model experiences. However, most companies fail to identify when they have reached the plateau of their current S-curve. The fear of heights – the anxiety of moving to a higher-risk, higher-reward model – often paralyzes companies from jumping to the next growth curve. This seldom-asked question forces business leaders to confront the fact that every model has an expiration date. While it's common to ask how to maintain growth, it is less common to ask when a model will no longer be viable. This requires forecasting industry trends, market shifts and internal capabilities to ensure a timely shift to the next S-curve, ensuring the company stays ahead of competitors.
Do we have the right innovation portfolio balance?
While most organizations understand the need for innovation, many organizations fail to ask whether their innovation efforts are properly balanced between core, adjacent and transformational innovations. Core innovations, aimed at improving existing products, often dominate the portfolio because they provide near-term returns. But an over-reliance on these incremental improvements can stifle growth in the long term.
Instead, companies should ask whether they are allocating enough resources to transformational innovation – those bold initiatives that may seem far from today’s core business but have the potential to redefine the company’s future. Balancing the innovation portfolio ensures that the business can capitalize on both immediate opportunities and future disruptions.
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How well do we understand and monitor weak signals?
Disruption rarely strikes out of the blue. Instead, it often announces its arrival through ‘weak signals’, which are subtle trends, minor technological advancements, or changes in consumer behavior that may not seem significant at first glance. Another seldom-asked but crucial question is: Are we detecting and acting upon these weak signals? Having a system in place to identify and track these signals can differentiate a company that is merely reactive from one that is truly anticipatory.
What is the true cost of strategic inertia?
Businesses frequently measure the cost of action – how much it will cost to innovate, enter a new market or launch a new product. But few stop to consider the cost of inaction. Strategic inertia, or the failure to adapt to changing circumstances, can quietly erode competitive advantage until it’s too late. The question here isn't just about opportunity cost but the hidden costs that accumulate as a company sticks to outdated strategies – whether through lost market share, declining talent or missed technological advancements. Companies should frequently assess whether their strategy is rooted in inertia or active, deliberate and agile decision-making.
How fungible are our key resources?
The term ‘fungibility’ is often used in finance, referring to the ease with which one asset can be replaced with another of equal value. However, when applied to human capital, technological capabilities or intellectual property, the concept is less discussed, though it is no less important. A rarely asked but critical question is: Can our existing resources be easily repurposed to fit new strategic objectives? Businesses tend to invest in specialized teams or proprietary technologies but fail to consider how adaptable these assets will be if the strategic direction changes. If your key resources are too rigid, you may find yourself incapable of pivoting when market demands shift. On the flip side, highly fungible resources allow for more strategic flexibility, enabling companies to repurpose talent and technology quickly when new opportunities arise.
What role do partnerships play in achieving our strategy?
While businesses often focus on internal strengths and weaknesses when formulating strategy, partnerships are an increasingly critical component of long-term success. However, partnerships are often treated as tactical alliances rather than strategic enablers. The real question should be: Are our partnerships aligned with where we want to go, not just where we are today? Successful partnerships help companies tap into new markets, access specialized capabilities, and scale more efficiently. When evaluating partnerships, it’s important to look beyond short-term goals and assess whether these alliances will support the company’s future ambitions.
Are we measuring the right things?
In today’s data-driven business environment, it’s easy to assume that more data means better decisions. However, the real challenge lies in ensuring that the metrics being tracked are the ones that truly reflect business health and long-term success. Businesses frequently monitor traditional KPIs like revenue growth, customer acquisition and profit margins, but seldom ask: Are we measuring the right things? For instance, in the era of digital transformation, a company might track website traffic or app downloads, but overlook deeper engagement metrics like customer lifetime value or the quality of customer interactions.
The question, then, isn’t whether you have the right numbers, but whether those numbers are telling you what you really need to know about the sustainability of your business strategy. By revisiting the metrics that matter, companies can ensure they are making decisions based on factors that will drive future success, not just short-term wins.
While many of these infrequently-asked questions may not be part of the daily business discussions, they hold the key to unlocking deeper insights into a company’s strategy and future success. By challenging conventional thinking and probing beyond the obvious, business leaders can navigate complexity, identify growth opportunities and create resilient strategies that stand the test of time. Asking the right and oftentimes frequently asked questions is the foundation of a great strategy. But what about asking the infrequent questions? That’s the path to long-term success.
The views expressed in this article are the views of the author only. This article provides general information and a point of view; it should not be considered as professional advice.
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