Agony & Detecting Signals Early

Managing several important changes simultaneously threatens to overwhelm growing companies. “The greater the number of such changes occurring at once, the more we multiply the agony”. (1) New product innovation compounds the awkwardness not only on internal resources but also in dealing with resource scarcity and competitor reaction/retaliation. As organizations make important changes, strategic advantages are often gained but the changes carry with them critical disruptions. The greater the number of simultaneous changes, the greater the hazard of organizational failure.
Arming the organization with both anticipation and resources allows corporate wide mobilization to seize opportunities and evade threats in good time. The opportunity is found in detecting signals early, before they become clear. Such opportunity often becomes the basis for innovation.

1 See Barnett, W.P. & Freeman, J. (2001). Too much of the good thing? Product Proliferation and Organizational Failure.

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