Over the break I have been reading a book called Blindsided by Jim Harris. It tackles the issue of how companies can miss crucial changes to their markets. One of the more interesting examples deals with how a chocolate manufacturer started losing revenue for the first time at the end of the nineties, but could not understand why. It turns out that one of their biggest markets – teenagers – now were spending their pocket money not on sweets, but on pre-pay mobile. They were – to use the phrase of the book – blindsided.

However the quote that interested me the most concerned the breadth of scanning that a company needs to undertake these days in order to prevent being caught out by changes :

“Move and explore in a direction you know the least. The principle is critical for businesses today. Send some people out to move in a direction you know the least. In other words allow some individuals to explore new areas that individuals and the organisation don’t currently understand as being related or relevant to your business”