“Opportunity is where you find it,” not where it finds you.
Luck, chance, and catastrophe affect business as they do all human endeavors. But luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential. No matter how successfully a business organizes itself for the challenges and opportunities of the present, it will still be far below its optimum performance. Its potential is always greater than its realized actuality.
Dangers and weaknesses indicate where to look for business potential. To convert them from problems into opportunities brings extraordinary returns. Opportunities have to be reflected against the experience of a company and against its past successes and failures. Sometimes all that is needed to accomplish this transformation is a change in the attitude of the executives. Three questions will bring out the hidden potential of a business:
- What are the restraints and limitations that make the business vulnerable?
- What are the imbalances of the business?
- What are we afraid of, what do we see as a threat to this business—and how can we use it as an opportunity?
ACTION POINT: Answer these three questions for your enterprise and move closer to optimum performance.
Managing for Results
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker