This rational, although prescriptive, paradigm appears to be very useful and has a certain academic elegance. The study of botany and zoology tells us that organisms exploit a specific niche in the environment to survive. Thus a giraffe has a long neck which allows it to feed off young leaves on the top of trees. There is very little competition for this food source so the giraffe has matched a strength with an opportunity. Notice, however, that with the strength comes a weakness. The giraffe is very vulnerable when drinking water. Yet, despite this vulnerability, the giraffe survives as a species showing that the strength—opportunity match far outweighs the weakness—threat combination. In a similar way, it was believed; organizations should flourish, provided the conventional strategic planning process was followed.