aspect integration inquiry

The comprehensive inquiry is the most extensive of the business organization inquiries. It is used for both understanding and designing a business organization. The aspect integration inquiry is done as a complement to the inquiries focusing on each of the four aspects of the business organization. The aspect integration delves into the interrelationships between the aspects and the competitive advantage factors, those interrelationships which produce competitive advantage. The specific inquiries are as follows --

Aspect combination inquiries --
These inquiries look at the integration of each aspect with every other aspect. More complex integrations will certainly be considered for those element networks most critical to competitive advantage, i.e. three and four way, but the following inquiries initiate the process --

purpose - function --
This is the integration of the purpose, the reason for being in the environment, with the results produced in the environment, including the offerings. Questions...

• Is the architecture of the purpose congruent with the architecture of the function?
• Are there portions of the offering that do not support the purpose of the organization?
• Can the offerings serve a similar purpose on other markets?
• What is the core customer and market need addressed by the offering?
• How effectively does the offering fulfill the purpose?
• What are the gaps between the organization's purpose and its offerings?
• Is the need broader or narrower than currently defined?
• What ancillary benefits could be delivered consistent with the purpose?
• What is the context for the use of the offering? What does the context suggest for opportunities?

function - process --
This is the integration of the results produced in the environment, including the offerings, with the processes, the activities and the competencies embedded in them. Assess the harmony between the architecture of the offerings and the processes. Questions...

• Is the architecture of the offerings congruent with the architecture of the processes?
• Do the competencies fully align with the offering? Any gaps? How might they be closed?
• What other offerings use the same or similar processes?

process - structure --
This is the integration of the processes, the activities and the competencies embedded in them, with the resources and structure. Assess the harmony between the architecture of the processes and the structure of the organization and value system. These questions are regarding the configuration of the resources and the processes of the business organization.

• Is the structure of the value system and organization congruent with the architecture of the processes?
• How we manage the interfaces between different assets, knowledge, and processes? (Hamel, 2002)
• Can we configure assets, skills, and processes in unique ways? (Hamel, 2002)
• Has anyone in our industry our domain configured their strategic resources in an unconventional way? (Hamel, 2002)
• Do they gain any advantage from this configuration? (Hamel, 2002)
• Can we imagine very different configurations that what we have at present? (Hamel, 2002)

structure - purpose --
This is the integration of the resources and structure with the purpose, the reason for being in the environment. Questions...

• Is the structure of the value system and organization congruent with the architecture of the purpose?
• Why are the company boundaries where they are?
• What would you change if you could?
• Where is the value added in the value system? Who owns the value?
• What are the possibilities to de-verticalize or verticalize the industry? Who gains? Who loses? Who captures what value?
• What opportunities are their for economies of scope?
• What opportunities exist for shifting the horizontal boundaries?

structure - function --
This is the integration of the resources and structure with the offerings and outputs of the business organization. Assess the harmony between the architecture of the offerings and the structure of the organization and value system. Questions...

• Is the structure of the value system and organization congruent with the architecture of the offering?
• Does the structure fully align with the offering?

purpose - process --
This is the integration of the purpose with the processes, the know-how, of the business organization. Assess the harmony between the architecture and needs of the purpose and the process competencies. Questions...

• Are the competencies of the organization congruent with its purpose?
• What does pursuit of the purpose infer the processes should be?
• If the processes are viewed in isolation, what purposes might be inferred from them?

Competitive advantage factors inquiry --
This inquiry consists of known combinations of elements that can produce competitive advantage. See competitive advantage factors for further explanation.