In his book the Mind of the Strategist, Japanese strategy consultant, Kenichi Ohmae, wrote "Analysis is the critical starting point of strategic thinking. Faced with problems, trends, events, or situations that appear to constitute a harmonious whole or come packaged as a whole by common sense of the day, the strategic thinker dissects them into their constituent parts. Then, having discovered the significance of these constituents, he reassembles them in a way calculated to maximize his advantage.

In business as on the battlefield, the object of strategy is to bring about the conditions most favorable to one's own side, judging precisely the right moment to attack or withdraw and always assessing the limits of compromise correctly. Besides the habit of analysis, what marks the mind of the strategist is an intellectual elasticity or flexibility that enables him to come up with realistic responses to changing situations, not simply to discriminate with great precision among different shades of gray. (pp. 12-13)"

It is important to think about competive situations strategically. Such an approach can be reinforced and it is a valued skill.

from Ohmae, K., The Mind of the Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.