ABSTRACT
The key factors that form the foundations of each major industry segment must be identified as critically affecting the future success of the business. While some segments have one or more factors that coincide with those of other segments, each segment has at least one factor that differs from another segment’s factor in some way. These factors must always be at the base of strategic planning and business operations or the company will lose its focus and begin to drift. This is not a matter of concentrating on the customer; rather, it is understanding just which elemental factors the company must rely upon in the process of satisfying customer needs.
