Strategic climate is the set of forces outside an organization’s control that change its business landscape. Competitor innovations and major world events are examples. In the Strategy Cycle, climate follows purpose and landscape: first clarify the organization’s ambition and map what matters, then consider how that landscape might change. section 5.4 section 5.1
A Wardley Map makes climate easier to discuss because it shows components and how they evolve. Looking ahead can counter recency bias—the tendency to give recent events too much weight. Climatic signals are possibilities to investigate, not predictions to treat as settled. section 5.4
To explore climate collaboratively:
- Take each mapped component in turn. Ask what outside your control could change it, and what new components might appear. section 5.4
- Research uncertain signals and revisit the map rather than treating the first workshop as a final answer. section 5.4
- Zoom out for patterns. If many components are becoming commodities, question investments intended to make those components differentiators. section 5.4.5
A changing build-or-buy decision
Building an in-house CRM was once justifiable for a UK company. Later, a commodity service offered cheaper operation and more advanced capabilities, but the in-house CRM was tightly coupled to bespoke capabilities and costly to replace. Anticipating that shift earlier could have informed architectural boundaries as well as the eventual build-or-buy decision. section 5.4.5
Climate can also reveal that advantage will not last. At a property-management company, a mapping discussion exposed how quickly competitors copied one another. The group recognized the need for a continuing source of innovation, rather than assuming any current differentiator would endure. section 5.4.5
