In an earlier interview with The Smart Manager, Rita McGrath, author of The End of Competitive Advantage, said, “In organizations, we always think the sins of commission are the ones that might be punished. In smart companies in the future, we are also going to think about sins of omission—not taking the appropriate chances or pursuing the appropriate opportunities for the future.” Consciously looking for opportunities and leveraging the best among them defines the path to survival in the long term.
A few years ago, Professor J Bruce Harreld of Harvard Business School studied businesses around the world of all sizes, in all sectors. Remarkably enough, he found that ‘only 1.7 percent’ of companies last more than 40 years. That is only half the typical human lifespan. How long should companies be able to live? Theoretically, forever. Why do they die so young?
all opportunities have a life cycle
Just as products have a lifecycle, so do opportunities. While some can remain relevant for decades, others fizzle out in only months or years. These days, even iconic consumer products such as Coca-Cola are grappling with irrelevance.
All companies constantly invest in new opportunities, both to replace those facing irrelevance, as well as to create new growth. The Harvard study found that while all corporate leaders are constantly on the lookout for great new opportunities, most fail to capture them.
Why? Because they go about this task incorrectly. The business graveyard is littered with the memories of once great companies that failed to overcome the forces of irrelevance. Remember Polaroid, or Kodak? Remember Nokia, or Blackberry? I could go on and on.
On the other hand, we constantly witness vibrant new companies popping up, seemingly out of nowhere, who make it big by taking full advantage of mammoth new opportunities.
opportunities are like powerful magnets
In my bestselling book Master Opportunity and Make it Big, I provide the lessons garnered by eighteen Indian entrepreneurs who started with nothing and leveraged huge opportunities to create iconic businesses. People such as Subhash Chandra, Uday Kotak, Harsh Mariwala, and Nirmal Jain.
This story is from the September - October 2018 edition of The Smart Manager.
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This story is from the September - October 2018 edition of The Smart Manager.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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