A new tool for strategy analysis: the opportunity model

摘要

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one (Mark Twain). In their recent book on leadership and change, the authors report that for many businesses "the biggest obstacle to greater growth is getting employees (including senior executives) to see new opportunities" (Black and Gregersen, 2003, p. 114). Why this is so becomes clear if we spend a little time securing a better grasp on what we mean by opportunity. Like many overused terms, a lack of precision permeates its application. Consider the following example: "Surging demand for telecommunications services, when coupled with deregulation, was seen as an enormous opportunity for new companies to enter the telecom service industry and compete with existing companies for industry revenues" (Hill and Jones, 2004, p. 37). But "Surging demand for telecommunications services … coupled with deregulation" is not an opportunity, it is a catalyst. A catalyst performs the function of a midwife in giving birth to an opportunity, but the midwife is not the opportunity. It is a change in the business environment calling for reassessing a company's goals, strategies and the options for reaching those goals. Calling it an opportunity, according to the model outlined in this article, means it is the solution to a problem; but demand and deregulation are not specific solutions to an organization's problems. They can be considered solutions to a macro problem in the economy, but opportunities, as I will show, are company specific.