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situation today might be very different if it had explored how the long-term
implications of not being first into the digital market would affect them. The
Swiss watch industry made exactly the same mistake and chose to overlook
quartz technology, allowing Seiko of Japan to become a world market leader.
The decisions of an intelligent executive can look very stupid when the rules
ofthe game are transformed. But as Edson de Castro, CEO of Data General,
said in 1978, “Few corporations are able to participate in the next wave of
change, because they are blinded by the business at hand.”
Some executives, because of this close focus, develop tunnel vision. I want
them to develop Funnel Vision. To that end, I teach them a schema I’ve
called the Possibilities Cone®. (See Figure 8.1.)
The Cone is f lared at its opening to allow a wide range of possibilities to be
discovered and explored. Our paradigms determine how well we begin that
capturing process. Once the idea enters the cone, it then f lows through the in-
tuitive judgment process, then through the strategic exploration process, then
FIGURE8.1 The Possibilities Cone