In order for a company to develop a profitable growth strategy, it should have a detailed understanding of its costs, competitive position and customer environment. However, due to resource constraints, department managers are usually focused on near term issues, and don’t have the time to focus on longer-term strategic issues. As such, any long-term analysis is substituted with conventional wisdom about the company and the markets they compete in. Unfortunately, more often than not, conventional wisdom is far off the mark from reality.
