In James Heskett’s blog post he asks a very interesting question: “Can too much focus can be damaging?” Focus is essential in any business as it creates clarity and specific goals for development. For example, by having a focused target market, companies can discover the most effective way to attract specific customers segments. Furthermore, by focusing on lowering costs, companies can generate more profit. Though these are essential in contributing to a business’ success, Haskett addresses a valid point that excessive focusing can impede one’s ability to notice.
Haskett uses several common examples to prove his point; doctors become unsuccessful when focusing on a diagnosis rather than the problem, the idea of trying to find keys in the dark rather than looking for better lighting, and lastly he listed several social experiments which emphasized his point. These persuading examples show that focusing can prevent people from looking at the broader picture and to think logically. Often companies fail to consider or recognize how what is outside their industry is impacting their business. Companies, thus, try and solve problems with out analyzing important factors that are causing the issue.
Upon reading James Heskett’s blog, I have come to the conclusion that while it is essential that business focus on particular goals and ideas in order to advance in a business, companies must also be aware of outside factors that are continuously influencing and altering their business. In my opinion Cedric Roossel best explained it when he said, “To put it simply, you don’t want to be focused during a strategy definition phase but you have to be focused in its execution.”