We’ve all heard the parable of the frog that is placed in a pot of water and then boils to death as the water is gradually heated. Though the parable has since been debunked, it still serves as a rich metaphor for describing how our finest organizations and executives sometimes get themselves into trouble.1 To extend the metaphor further, many of our most popular business articles and books can be said to have focused, in one way or another, on how to avoid getting boiled to death. Leavitt’s “Marketing Myopia” is a classic in this regard.2 How could buggy whip manufacturers be so shortsighted as to not see that the age of the automobile would wipe out their market? Why did they stubbornly refuse to think more broadly about the market they served? More recently, Clayton Christensen advances the idea that “disruptive technologies” can catch successful companies off guard, causing them to fail.3 Overcommitment to a course of action (even one that has worked in the past and now may be working) is likely to make executives miss certain warning signs or misinterpret them when they do appear. Returning to the frog parable, executives are apt to ignore the fact that the temperature around them is gradually... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
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