business organization inquiry

Business organization inquiry serves to develop understanding of and designs for the business organization. The inquiry process effectively serves both objectives. Understanding the current business means knowing how it operates, competes and behaves; its sources of advantage, potential for advantage, problems, and opportunities. Strategy formation produces a business design. Designing a business develops understanding about a business 'to be'. In either case, the inquiry process is the same, iterating towards an understanding.

Types of inquiry --
Inquiry has several variations to satisfy various needs. The strategy formation inquires the business organization using the business design construct, whether in whole or in part. These inquiries include --

• Comprehensive inquiry -- The comprehensive inquiry is the holistic inquiry of the business organization, covering all its aspects and elements. This type of inquiry develops people's understanding of the existing organization in preparation for strategy formation. Following this are comprehensive inquiries to explore and prepare business designs when forming strategy.
• Strategic focus inquiry -- The strategic focus is the ""sweet spot"" where an organization's distinctive competencies are used to produce a unique value proposition in passionate pursuit of its purpose. The aspects of the strategic focus, subsets of the main four, are core ideology, fundamental value proposition, and distinctive competency. See strategic focus.
• Culture inquiry -- Culture emerges from the fundamental organizational processes of the business organization. These processes are shaped by elements such as values, principles, and organization structure. Given the power of the culture to replicate the organization, like the DNA of an organism, culture must be addressed explicitly in order to transform an organization. See culture.

Inquiry questions --
Questions providing inquiry stimulation and guidance are defined for each aspect as well as the integration of those aspects. See each type of inquiry listed above and the related aspects for these questions.

Inquiry objectives --
Inquiries are performed with a purpose in mind. To better understand the business organization. To design it. To spur creative thinking and innovation. To build strategic thinking capability and business savvy. To define a competitive advantage. Regardless of the particular reason for the inquiry, all of these purposes will be served in the process. The two stages of strategy formation - generate wisdom, where understanding is developed, and create art, where strategies are formed - both heavily depend upon inquiry processes.