How do we choose a new business direction?

Frame the choice and generate alternatives with the people closest to the business. The B2B Reinvention framework starts by bringing the right people together, identifying their central challenge or opportunity, and recasting it as a question. The task is then to imagine different ways of answering that question, rather than move directly from a broad challenge to one preferred solution.

Use the agreed question to give collaborative exploration a clear focus. Participants contribute their experience and knowledge to develop competing possibilities for the business. The immediate goal is a genuine strategic choice: several possible answers to the same question, ready for closer examination before anyone commits to a direction.

Identify each option's conditions for success before choosing a preferred direction. The Reinvent Your Way methodology calls for surfacing and selecting the conditions that need to be true for promising strategies to succeed. For each shortlisted possibility, ask what would have to be true for that direction to work.

Keep the proposed direction separate from the conditions on which its success depends. An attractive answer to the strategic question is a possibility to examine, not yet a decision to implement. Making its conditions explicit gives the team something to test when choosing among the strongest alternatives, rather than comparing proposals only by how appealing they sound.

Test the conditions before committing by turning shortlisted possibilities into further questions, hypotheses and practical tests. In the Carbon Tanzania workshop, the two founders and their partners explored possible answers to a single strategic question agreed beforehand. The planned next stage was to frame questions, hypotheses and tests from the shortlist so that Carbon Tanzania could make an informed final decision. Producing strategic options was therefore a stage in the decision process, not confirmation that a direction was viable.

The B2B Reinvention approach also includes supporting investigation to help teams choose a strategic route. Use tests to inform the choice before moving into action and creative execution.

Reuters reported in 2025 that Intel tied further investment in its 14A manufacturing process to confirmed external customer commitments and warned it could pause development without a major customer. The case illustrates a concrete condition for further commitment: customer backing before additional investment.