Your Cross-Border Decision

Think of a real product, service, or supplier in your work that crosses a border — now diagnose the hidden trade-off behind it.

Name the tension

Write the cross-border decision your company faces or has recently faced. What two things are pulling in opposite directions?

Sort the forces

Place the pressures driving this decision into two zones: forces pushing you toward more global sourcing, and forces pushing you toward local or regional supply.

More global

More local

How urgent is this, really?

Mark where your situation sits on this spectrum — then write one sentence justifying your mark.

We can wait years

We must decide this month

The obvious answer

Write the solution most people in your organisation would immediately suggest. Now look back at step 2 — which zone does that answer ignore entirely?

The hidden cost

Attack your obvious answer: what does it cost, what does it assume, and what would have to be true for it to fail? Write one word that captures the real risk — then explain why that word in one line.

Why that word?

Discuss Tell your partner your one-word risk from step 5 — do they agree it is the right word?

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