1) Two shoe companies, Air Kobe and Stretchers, were invited to do business in the newly sovereign island nation of Fooji which was offering tax breaks to attract foreign investment. 2) Air Kobe sent their Director of Sales Teddy Sycophant who did a quick issue discovery and determined that Foojians do not wear shoes, so there was no market. He advised against investing. 3) Stretchers hired Sally Effort who did extensive research through interviews and studies. She discovered that children could be persuaded to wear shoes, starting a market. Stretchers built stores in Fooji and put her in charge, leading to huge success.

1. By Edward Laiche III
Speech 104

2. The newly sovereign island nation of Fooji, in
and effort to modernize its economy, offered
tax breaks to American companies for doing
business in their country. Two shoe companies,
the well established Air Kobe and the upstart
Stretchers were among the companies given
invitations.
 The claim was Fooji should have shoe stores.

3. In order to validate the claim, both companies
sent a representation to evaluate the situation
and discover issues that would convince their
respective companies to be for or against the
claim. This process of gathering information for
decision making or advocacy is called “ISSUE
DISCOVERY.”

4. There are four types of issues that can be
discovered:
 POTENTIAL ISSUES- These are all the possible
questions that can be asked of the claim.
 ADMITTED ISSUES- These are questions
raised by one side and agreed to by the other
side, making the issue “moot.”
 REAL ISSUES – These are the important
questions that remain after narrowing the
potential issues down.

5.  ULTIMATE ISSUES – These are key questions
that, in and of themselves, are sufficient for the
disposition of the claim.
Overall, issues are the questions inherent in the
claim that are discovered through
brainstorming, research, and analysis. These
discovered questions must be answered so that
a stand on the claim can be taken… Answered
issues become the basis for your contentions.

6.  Contentions are the main argument that
support your position on the claim.
 Contentions mostly come from the ultimate
issues.

7. The Air Kobe company sent the Director of
Sales, Teddy Sycophant, to Fooji to assess the
situation. It was hot, humid and there was no
golf course so he was in a real hurry to get
home. He made quick work of his issue
discovery and found the ultimate issue right
away. “ Do Foojians wear shoes?” The answer
was no, they do not and never have.

8. So, he adopted the con side of the claim by
contenting that “the Foojians do not wear shoes
so there is no market for shoes in Fooji.
Therefore the Air Kobe company should not
invest in building shoe stores in Fooji.”
When Teddy returned home he was given a big
raise for averting another Tokyo cake mix
disaster.1

9. The Stretchers Company however hired a
professional, Sally Effort, to go to Fooji and
assess the situation. “The difference between a
professional and an amateur is knowing what
questions to ask.”2 Sally’s issue discovery
uncovered hundreds of Potential issues. She
did Exploratory research to structure new
problems and Constructive research to develop
new solutions.

10. Sally did Empirical research by getting out
among the people of Fooji to find out their
concerns, their life style and desires.
From this she discovered that the Ultimate
Issue was: “How can Foojians be persuaded to
wear shoes.” The answer to this became her
contention for siding with the status quo.

11. Sally contented that “ the Foojians can be
persuaded to wear shoes by marketing them to
the children. Therefore, the Stretchers company
should build shoe stores in Fooji.” The
Stretchers shoe company accepted her
contention because of the supporting grounds
she provided and built shoe stores in Fooji and
put Sally in charge of marketing.

12. Sally took charge. She had the best shoe for the
Foojian life style developed, The Fooji Footy.
She had pseudo scientific research papers
delivered to the schools explaining the benefits
of wearing the Footy, you can run faster, climb
higher and stay on your surf board better. She
offered incentives, any child 14 and under got
their first pair free. This is called priming the
pump.

14. She sponsored classes for expectant mothers
that among other things, taught expectant
mothers the importance of having their
children shod for their first steps to promote
healthy foot development.
She had hundreds of pairs of infant size Fooji
Footys made available, free of cost, to all
mothers of newborns and she paid for the local
bronze foundry to bronze a baby’s first pair for
free.

15. But by far, her greatest achievement was to
have the Stretchers company sponsor the local
surfing hero because when he won the
Australian Pipeline Challenge, wearing Fooji
Surfboard Footies, they became an
international hit.
Now, twenty five years later, all the baby
boomers have grown up and they all wear
shoes, so do their children and their parents.

16. The international demand for Fooji Footies has
made the Stretcher Fooji Footy division the
largest employer in the nation with revenue in
the hundred millions annually. The Fooji Footy
theme park and golf course attracts a million
tourist a year and the Stretcher Company
helped elect the current Prime Minister.

17. When the President and CEO of the Fooji Footy
Division, Sally Effort was asked the secret of
her success, she said, “I always knew what
questions to ask because I did the exploratory,
constructive and empirical research necessary
to discover them. But, I didn’t stop there, I did
the Cost/Benefit Analysis by weighing the
total expected costs vs. the total expected
benefits of each action.

18. I did Priorities Analysis by prioritizing
objectives and weighing the trade-offs if we
adopt a claim. I did Continuities Analysis by
studying the results of following similar claims
and determining if a break from tradition is
warranted. Finally I did a lot of Brainstorming
generating an extensive list of questions by
bringing together people of collective
wisdom.”

19. Sally concluded with a quote from
Michelangelo “if people only knew how hard I
work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so
wonderful at all.“
1. Reference to an American Companies decision to send thousands of box of cake mix
to Japan without first asking the questions :“Does the typical Japanese household
have an oven?”
2. Jim Marteney
3. Note: all definitions come directly from Communicating Critical Thinking, Jack Stark
and Jim Marteney pages 149 to 159.