What can reveal new business directions beyond our research?

Use the knowledge already inside the business to imagine what could come next, rather than expecting another market analysis to supply the direction. The Frameworks argues that a thorough understanding of today's market, customers and competitors cannot by itself answer what a business should create that does not yet exist.

The Frameworks' B2B Reinvention approach combines creative facilitation with the deep contextual knowledge of people closest to the business, including those who will have to live with the decisions. The practical starting point is to articulate even apparently obvious thoughts, then interrogate their meaning and explore alternative ways to express them, rather than dismissing them before they develop.

PwC reported in 2025 that, among US Fortune 1000 and private companies, 58% of CEOs are gathering diverse executive perspectives and encouraging internal debate, while 50% are bringing in external advisers to challenge their thinking.

Give imagination and analysis different jobs: use imagination to generate possible directions and analysis to test and rationalise them. The Frameworks argues that number-crunching remains vital, but should not be expected to originate the creative possibility it is used to assess.

The distinction is not a reason to abandon data or pursue ideas without scrutiny. The Frameworks also argues that imagination in isolation can be as ineffective as data without creative input. Its practice is to consider how data and technology can drive and enhance the ideas it develops.

For leaders choosing a direction, the useful distinction is between creating an option and judging it. Bring people with different outlooks together to imagine alternatives, then apply analytical rigour to those possibilities without allowing analysis or fear of failure to suppress their creation.