An environmental assessment is a critical part of any strategic planning process. Its purpose is to identify changes around your business that pose risks or opportunities for the business in light of its market position.  The assessment follows the identification of Strengths and Weaknesses, creating the well-known SWOT Table. Too often, leadership teams forget the critical next step to the SWOT assessment – identifying the core strategic issues and questions facing the business. Richard Rumelt, a renowned strategist, argues in Good Strategy/Bad Strategy that “A strategy is a way through a difficulty, an approach to overcoming an obstacle, a response to a challenge” and a fresh way to build new competitive strength. Without identifying the strategic issues and challenges/opportunities, you bypass the thinking that can lead to an overarching strategy – a coherence of interdependent moves that together build success. For Walmart, the…