The Strategic Arena

The Pandemic has stressed every business environment!  

Every business exists in an environment: a combination of people, place, product, and other factors. Some factors, such as weather or laws, are common to all businesses in an area, while other factors are unique based on the attributes of the business itself.

All businesses have limited resources, so they must identify, then prioritize, the most critical factors in their environment. Like living organisms in an ecosystem, a business’s survival and success depends upon making the most of its resources to adapt to ever-changing conditions.  The pandemic has challenged every business to survive and adapt.

Using The Strategic Arena approach will help to identify and prioritize the most important factors to deal with first.

Your business has a portfolio of critical factors that define the strategic arena in which you compete. Identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing your factors is necessary for your business to grow or remain strong. Working with you, we  explore your environment.

Through expert facilitation, The Strategic Arena model guides you through an interactive assessment targeting the 21 factors that directly impact your business.

Use your insights to set priorities

Our assessment process reveals the factors that have maximum impact on your business. Our clients have found that targeting each critical factor in sequence triggers heightened awareness and helps generate insight. Insight, in turn, helps them gain clarity about the most strategic way forward, step by step.

Take strategic actions

The Strategic Arena assessment results provide the input. Then we help you identify, examine, and sequence potential actions to impact your top priorities. As you implement these actions, we advise you to hold regular reviews and make needed adjustments. When an action is complete and a priority factor addressed, then you cycle to your next priority.

Contact us to manage your Strategic Arena

Start to manage your strategic arena.  The Consulting Garage’s Strategic Management Process directs your focus to your top strategic actions.

Your first strategic action is to contact The Consulting Garage.  Schedule a call today: email  [email protected] or submit the details requested on our Contact page .

Strategic Arena v6.2

The Strategic Arena is a part of The Consulting Garage’s Strategic Management Model.

strategic arena + strategic management v2.1
  • Survey your strategic arena
  • Document your competitive situation
  • Analyze your strengths and weaknesses
  • Define key opportunities and threats
  • Design and trigger specific actions to impact your priorities
  • Align your strategic process with your business cycle

We offer full confidentiality for all information created in your analysis. We will use a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) on request.

For more detail about The Strategic Arena profile factors, see the table below:


The Consulting Garage evaluates the following factors to create your unique profile.

FactorsInternalDescriptionAttributes + Approaches
1Business Issue/problemwhat do you need help with? (clarity, density, motivation)clarity, density, motivation
2Leadership/governancewho leads and what is their scope and decision authority?model data and analyze results
3Identity/lifecyclewhat is the business & what stage of development is it?peg lifecycle stage and check tendencies
4Business Modelhow do you get revenue and how do you slice up the pie?build simple business model
5Results Historyhow has your business performed to date?model data and analyze results
6Financial Positionhow is your cash flow and are you willing to invest?financial contraints and urgency
7Management Modelhow do you manage and who’s accountable?company culture and functionality
8Organization/staffwho are your staff how are they structured?organizational model
9Business Cyclewhat is the calendar and/or cycle for your business?chart timeline and milestones
10Processeshow do you do what you do?process engineering and work flow
11Data AAIhow is your information availability, access and integrity?identify data sources and utility
12Value & Supply Chain Managementhow do you manage suppliers & other 3rd parties?chain design and efficiency models
13Culturewhat is your work environment like, and what’s the culture?workplace and staff issues
14Strategic Embeddingdoes everyone understand the goal and how to get there?communication, clarity, alignment
 External  
15CustomersWho are the sources of revenue and how concentrated are they?buyer power and concentration
16CompetitorsWho else is competing for that revenue?red or blue ocean
17Suppliers/3rd partiesWho are the 3rd parties that you are using?access to external expertise
18Market/industrywhat is the target market and industry segment?SWOT, competitive analysis
19Competitive Factorson what factors do market rivals compete?Strategic canvas
20Best Practice Utilityis best practice readily available & applicable to problem?uniqueness of problem and need for external ideas
21Relevant Macro Factorsare there larger economic/societal issues materially involved ?material causal factors

Contact Tim Cooper at [email protected] to find out how this framework can help you.