p.366 The single most important word in strategy formulation is why.

Asking why is the basic act of probing... Asking why leads to new insights and innovations... Probing slows things down, but often to good effect. It can yield revolutionary new thoughts in quite unexpected places.

p.366-367 Few new thoughts have been as revolutionary as the so-called Japanese manufacturing technique... Central to this rethinking was tireless probing. In his book on the Toyota production system, Taiichi Ohno, vice president of manufacturing for Toyota, cites the practice of  "the five whys." He gives an example of how asking "why" five times (or more) led him through all the explanations to find the most important root cause... To probe to the limits is to simplify the problem to its essentials

p.368 Good strategy depends critically on knowing the root causes... Probing - asking why - is the often intuitive search for the logic that heavy data analysis can miss or bury... These sorts of probes search for bedrock reasons for value and advantages to test how enduring they may be. They ask whether the shape and character of the business and its strategy make sense.

  Asking why five times is easy in concept, but harder in practice. It can be very rewarding. Why not do it?