adminGodfrey Wasara
In business, threats and opportunities can be viewed as two sides of the same coin. Any event that affects your business either poses a threat or provides an opportunity.
When someone poses a threat, they are actually creating opportunities for themselves. I am going move on with the two together because in business when a threat is posed, you must always confront it and if possible turn it into an opportunity, bearing in mind that if the threat is man-made, then the originator of such threat is in actual fact creating an opportunity for him/herself.
Threats and opportunities defined
A threat is an occurrence that has the potential to terminate your existence from mother earth in a worst case scenario.
In lighter language a threat is something that poses danger. Thus one is correct to say, “Married women view ‘small houses’ as threats to their marriages.” Wars, tsunamis, climatic changes, diseases like Ebola, HIV and AIDS are a threat to human existence. Threats are managed by confronting and eliminating them. You cannot afford to ignore a threat because it will end up consuming you.
On the other hand, an opportunity is a window or an opening that gives you the leeway to exploit the situation to your advantage.
It is an environment or situation that allows you to do what you want to do. I will give a biblical example.
Ruth said to her mother-in-law, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of the grain after him in whose sight I shall find favour” (Ruth 2:2).
Ruth was creating an opportunity for herself. Boaz was also quick to provide the opportunity and Ruth went on to say, “Why have I found favour in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner?” Ruth 2:10.
Thus Ruth saw the opportunity coming. To those who read the Bible, they are aware of what finally happened. Such are opportunities. Opportunities are exploited. If you fail to exploit an opportunity, someone will, and the chances are it may never come your way again. Just like money, opportunities are scarce.
Situations or events posing threats and
creating opportunities
Political (Wars)
In 1940, a German scientist by the name Wenher von Braun was working on a project.
When asked to divulge his intentions, he said he intended to go to the moon. Hitler thought otherwise. He saw this invention as an opportunity for him to bring London to ashes.
The scientist was given the necessary support in form of a conducive environment to pursue the project but this time for other purpose.
To Great Britain this was a big threat which needed immediate confrontation. Hitler failed to pulverise London due to some other logistical problems. The rockets could not be delivered on time and meanwhile the Allied forces fortunately became aware of the project, confronted it head on and destroyed the rockets before they were launched. Germany lost the war and had to surrender.
Meanwhile, the Americans saw an opportunity in this scientist’s potential. They took him to America and provided the right environment for the scientist to pursue his dream.
In 1969 three Americans landed on the moon. Von Braun later died as one of the most decorated achievers.
Such is the behaviour of threats and opportunities created by a war situation. Imagine what would have happened if Britain had ignored the threat. Also imagine what would have happened if the scientist was tried for war crimes and sentenced to death. Possibly by now no one would have reached the moon. Simply put, threats were confronted and opportunities were exploited.
Economic
Zimbabwe businesses have been threatened by factors arising from the economic front.
Hyper inflation (up to 2008), ageing equipment, very low capacity utilisation, poor inflows of FDI, liquidity constraints and a ballooning percentage of non-performing loans are but some of the economic factors impacting negatively on business to such an extent that some companies are closing shop.
The reason why some companies still survive under such harsh conditions is resilience on the part of their owners.
Zimbabweans have confronted threats emanating from the economic front by nurturing resilience. Today Zimbabweans are regarded as a resilient people. The resilience has opened a lot of opportunities elsewhere. Right now Zimbabwe exports labour.
The reason why Zimbabweans are on high demand on the international labour market is the quality and level of their education, culture of working hard and of course, the resilience nurtured during tough economic times. From the other end, the Government has confronted the threat with its own programmes that have also created opportunities. These programmes if implemented in earnest will create more opportunities.
Ecological
Ecological threats have been most pronounced in the far eastern countries. Typhoons hitting the Philippines and tsunamis devastating Japan are some of the resent examples. In our country Zimbabwe, we are almost getting to the middle of December but there is no rainfall.
Experts argue that this is due to climatic changes. Indeed climatic changes are a threat to our agrarian economy. The tsunami threat has opened opportunities for the Japanese to innovate in new technologies that will minimise the effect of such tsunamis in future.
At the same time, countries that produce Uranium 235 got an opportunity to export more Uranium to Japan who would want to replenish the nuclear power lost as a result of the tsunami.
In Zimbabwe we are also confronting the threat to our agriculture industry brought about by climatic changes. People are being educated through various media of the climatic changes and how best to mitigate the effects.
The culture of harvesting and preserving water is slowly finding its way home. I am positive we shall be shortly be innovating on new ways of making maximum use of the Zambezi waters, the same way the Egyptians are exploiting the Nile, to ensure our agriculture survives.
Such innovations will bring with them more employment opportunities.
Socio-cultural
HIV and AIDS, Ebola just to mention a few, are some of the diseases which invaded the human race with a devastating impact. This challenge became an opportunity for scientists to search for a cure. Heroes and heroines were born out of the crisis. Some have looked beyond opportunities and sacrificed their lives to save other people’s lives. Scientist confronted the threat head on.
The high literacy rate among Zimbabweans has brought with it more consumer sophistication that has to be matched with the products. This brings with it both threats and opportunities. This threat can be turned into an opportunity by keeping abreast with changes in consumer tastes to ensure your products are not left behind.
Technology and competition
I will lastly touch on these because they hit where it hurts most; your products or services.
Technology has the tendency of bringing products into premature obsolescence. I am not going any further because practical examples are plenty.
Your product or service is always a target of competition and inability to confront such competition renders your product or service a victim of competition.
Threats for your products or services arise from various angles. The threat can be caused by a new competitor entering the same market with the same product and a less price.
The competitor might come with a more superior product at your price or even a substitute. All these scenarios open avenues for innovation and continuous learning and improvement.
The mainframe computer has now been replaced by laptop.
Johnson & Johnson remains what it is because it invests a lot in research and development of a wide variety of child care products.
Colgate has worked tirelessly to continuously improve its brand.
Coca cola is what it is today because the people behind the brand have made Coca cola a way of life.
In both life and business, opportunities do sometimes present themselves, but, whenever you are faced with threats, confront them and if possible convert them into opportunities, in the same manner misfortunes can be converted into fortunes and disadvantages into advantages.
Continue following your passion with determination.
- Godfrey Wasara is a registered public accountant, author and founder of Godane Business Conventions (GBC), a business solutions think-tank. He strives to make positive global contribution by articulating and stimulating the importance and significance of financial literacy. You may contact him on [email protected]
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