Consider whether the assumptions you are making about your business might need a fresh look. Review the warning signs of fading advantage.

Back to our analytical approach. The issue you need to focus on in your analysis of arenas is whether a change in the daily constraints that your business operates under might allow a competitor to address customer pain points differently or better than you do.

We’ve explored the idea of an arena, rather than an industry, as being a crucial level of analysis. We’ve looked at how irritants and blockers in key stakeholders’ paths to getting jobs done can open the door to an inflection sparked by an organization that removes those attributes. We’re now on the brink of considering what actions should be taken next.

The dilemma is that when the challenges facing an organization are not about repeatable execution, but about innovation or responding to complexity, the idea of breaking things down into well-understood parts is not only unhelpful, it can also be a dangerous trap.

There is another, equally critical, factor for success in companies: teams that act as communities, integrating interests and putting aside differences to be individually and collectively obsessed with what’s good for the company.