Time order
时间顺序

Time order is the simplest order of all to understand, and the most pervasive in business writing. What you are doing in a time-ordered grouping is spelling out the steps a person must take to achieve a particular effect, in the order in which he must take them.
时间顺序是最容易理解的顺序，也是商业写作中最常见的顺序。在时间排序的分组中，你需要明确一个人为了达到特定效果必须采取的步骤，并按照他必须执行的顺序排列这些步骤。

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Incomplete thinking
不完整的思维

Try the questioning of the order on this example:
用以下示例尝试质疑顺序：

Strategic planning involves the recognition of a timing cycle.
战略规划涉及识别时间周期。

• Perception of need.
  感知需求。

• Development of strategy for creating responsive product/service.
  制定创建响应型产品/服务的战略。

• Implementation.
  实施。

• Market acceptance and high growth.
  市场接受和高速增长。

• Slower growth, the onset of maturity.
  增长放缓，成熟期开始。

• High cash generation.
  高现金生成。

• Decline/decay.
  衰退/消亡。

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Confused logic
混乱的逻辑

That was a relatively simple example of incomplete thinking. But the technique is equally useful when the logic is badly confused, as in this example:
上面是一个相对简单的思维不完整示例。但当逻辑混乱时，这种技术同样有用，例如以下示例：

However, business definition...
然而，业务定义...

• Relies heavily on creative processes.
  严重依赖创造性过程。

• Demand segmentation.
  需求细分。

• Supply segmentation.
  供应细分。

• Changes over time.
  随时间变化。

• Early vs. late stages of life cycle.
  生命周期早期与晚期的对比。

• Competitive dynamics.
  竞争动态。

• Not necessarily unique in a given industry.
  在某个行业中不一定是唯一的。

• Influenced by marketer’s own strength vs. competition.
  受营销人员自身实力与竞争对手的影响。

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False grouping
错误的分组

You can see the power of the technique in identifying improper order because of confused logic. It also lets you identify when you have brought ideas together that don’t belong in the grouping, as here:
你可以看到，这种技术在识别由于逻辑混乱导致的顺序错误时的强大作用。它还能帮助你识别将不属于一个分组的想法放在一起的情况，例如：

The traditional focus of investment evaluation is to compare future returns and probable costs.
传统的投资评估重点在于比较未来收益与可能的成本。

• It is often technically unsound.
  这在技术上往往不够严谨。

• It rests on simplistic concepts.
  依赖于简单化的概念。

• It results in misleading prescriptions.
  导致误导性的建议。

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In conclusion:
结论：

The order is time order, in the sense that you have to have the concept before you can apply it badly. But do you need more than a bad concept and bad application of it for misleading prescriptions to result?
这个顺序是时间顺序，因为你需要先有概念，才能错误地应用它。但是否仅需要糟糕的概念和应用就能导致误导性建议？

Sometimes you will find that time order is imposed on an existing structure, so that the structure dictates the number and sequence of steps.
有时你会发现，时间顺序是强加在现有结构上的，这种结构决定了步骤的数量和顺序。