Peripheral Vision: Seven Steps to Seeing Business Opportunities Sooner

Research-Technology Management, March-April, 2006

Peripheral Vision: Seven Steps to Seeing Business Opportunities Sooner; George S. Day and Paul J. H. Schoemaker; Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA; May 2006; 272 pp., $29.95.

From emerging technologies to changes in consumer tastes, tremendous opportunities and threats often begin as weak signals from the periphery. How good is your organization at sensing, interpreting and acting on these signals? Day and Schoemaker, who lead the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the Wharton School, call this capability peripheral vision; their research shows that less than 20 percent of firms have developed it in sufficient capacity to remain competitive.

In their book, they describe a systematic process for developing peripheral vision and offer tools and strategies for building "vigilant organizations" that are constantly attuned to changes in the environment. Through case studies ranging from LED lighting to low-carb foods to children's dolls, they show how vigilant organizations win by: scoping widely and asking the right questions; scanning actively in the right places; interpreting what signals mean; probing carefully for more information; and acting wisely on signals before competitors do.

The book is organized around a seven-step process for understanding and enhancing peripheral vision. The first five steps focus on directly improving the process of receiving, interpreting and acting on weak signals from the periphery. The first step, scoping, concerns how widely to look and what issues to address (Chapter 2). Managers can use a set of guiding questions to ensure that their focus is neither too broad nor too narrow, avoiding being overwhelmed or missing important parts of the picture. After the initial scope is determined, the next step is how to scan within the selected areas (Chapter 3). This chapter offers tools and approaches for detecting signals in different parts of the periphery, including inside the firm, customers and competitors, emerging technologies, and influencers and shapers.

Once the organization is scanning within a promising area, the next step is to make sense of what is found (Chapter 4). Much of the information appears ambiguous and incomplete. Among other strategies, the interpretation of weak signals can be strengthened through diverse viewpoints--similar to the process of triangulation--to add depth and perspective.

Based on this preliminary interpretation, the next step is to probe further to learn more about the periphery and develop a better view (Chapter 5). This requires formulating good hypotheses and knowing how to test them to confirm (as well as disconfirm) them. Next, the organization must decide whether and how to act on the signals from the periphery (Chapter 6).

While steps 1 through 5 focus on improving the process of peripheral vision, the last two steps make the process an integral part of the organization's fabric and culture, helping to systematically refine the organizational capabilities needed in a truly vigilant organization (Chapter 7). Finally, although everyone in the organization may play a role in peripheral vision, the authors' survey revealed the pivotal role that leaders play. How to develop leadership that fosters organizational curiosity is the challenge of the last step, and this is addressed in Chapter 8. "Effective peripheral vision does NOT boil down to a standard, linear recipe," Day and Schoemaker write. "It requires practice, dedication, and seasoned judgment. Understanding the periphery is not so much about following a formula as it is about asking the right questions and reflecting on them appropriately. It is not about prediction but rather about anticipation and alertness."